Leaping Into Magic
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: When Sam Beckett Leaps into the body of Harry Potter, he must not only save Ginny Weasley's life, but he must learn to use the magic whose existence he has never accepted to save the life of a man whose life was never what it should have been
1. The Coming of Sam Beckett

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd like it

AN: To anyone unaware of Quantum Leap, the basic summary is as follows; quantum physicist Doctor Sam Beckett conceived a means of time travel that allowed people to observe history as unseen holograms (So long as the events occurred in their lifetimes) but something went wrong on the first attempt and he ended up travelling randomly from time from the moment he was conceived (Early in 1953) to the date he began his journey (In around 1999), Leaping into people's lives, changing history for the better with the aid of Al, his friend in the future who appears to him as a hologram with information gained from Ziggy, the computer that monitors the Leaps. While in the past, Sam's body is surrounded by an 'aura' that makes him appear as though he is the person whose life he now inhabits, while, back at the Project, the person he has replaced resembles Sam to all who see him

Leaping Into Magic

_For a few moments, after leaving the body of Chippendale dancer Rod 'the Bod' McCarty, having allowed deaf woman Diana Quinna Perry to achieve her dream of becoming a dancer rather than being forced to become a prostitute and, eventually, die of AIDS, he was in the void that was the onyl world he knew between his Leaps. _

_It had no other name but the void; if it was called something else, he had never been able to guess what it was. The void was the area that he always forgot when he was back in the real world, but, simultaneously, at these moment, the only thing that gave him the drive to keep going, the only thing that proved to him that he was actually being guided by something, rather than some random fluke. _

_"Doctor Beckett…" _

_There it was._

_The voice of whomever it was who selected the destinations of his Leaps. _

_And, as always, the voice from which there was only one question he wanted an answer to._

"_Am I going home?" he asked, trying to avoid the childish tone that he sometimes felt had become his staple at these moments. _

_He was no longer even sure he remembered where, or what, 'home' was; all he knew for sure was that it was a safe place, with people who knew him for who he was, and he no longer ran the risk of dying or being trapped by somebody in his attempts to make things better…_

_He had made a difference in his new role; he would not deny that._

_But he wanted to go home…_

_He wanted to see his own face in the mirror…_

_And, as always, the voice chuckled sympathetically as it prepared to say 'no'._

"_Home?" it replied to him. "Oh no… not yet. It's not time._

"_But soon. It shall be soon. I promise."_

_He sensed a brief pause, as though the consciousness that controlled the Leaps was trying to come to a decision, and then it almost sounded…_

Sad?

_He knew it would have to care, of course- nothing would go to _this _much effort if it wasn't genuinely _worried _about the fate of people- but still, to actually _hear _the voice express concern…_

"_He did not deserve that," the voice said, as it appeared to turn its attention back to him. "You can save him, Doctor Beckett._

"_All you need do, is _believe_."_

_And then he Leaped…_

* * *

As the usual brilliant light faded, he blinked his eyes open and glanced around at his new surroundings. 

He noted with relief that he was in a relatively normal-looking house- the situation might not be that complicated, if appearances were anything to go by-, with a calendar on the wall saying '1997'; at least he seemed to be fairly close to his present, so hopefully he wouldn't have long to wait until help showed up.

At a closer examination of his surroundings, he was currently standing in what looked like a bedroom, but it was far larger than any room he'd seen before; it almost seemed large enough of take up a whole floor of a normal house. There were three beds in it, leather-bound books scattered around the place as though the inhabitants of the room were reading several things at once, and various other random objects that seemed to not be connected to anything else. After all, what did a bunch of buttons, needles, cushions, blankets, and a couple of…

Ornately carved wooden sticks?

_That _certainly wasn't all that normal._  
_

_Where _am _I?_ he wondered to himself, as he briefly looked around the room for a window. Then he shook his head and decided to focus on his more immediate concerns; namely, what gender he was now.

Checking over his body, he noticed with relief that at least he seemed to be a man this time (He had nothing _against _the leaps into women, of course, it was just always awkward pretending to be a member of the opposite sex). The clothing seemed to support that theory, at any rate; blue jeans, a checked blue-and-cream shirt, dirty white sneakers, and wire-frame glasses perched on his nose, with no trace of a bra or something like that around his chest. A glance up at his forehead revealed a mess of black hair that seemed to hang down over his forehead, but nothing else was immediately apparent…

"UGH!" he grunted, as something slammed into his back and he fell to the ground, the glasses falling off his face (Fortunately, like in all cases where his host wore glasses, it didn't have any affect on his vision) and…

_Another_ ornately carved stick falling out of his sleeve?

"What the…?" he said, dazed and confused as he reached over, placed the glasses back on his face, and stared at the stick as though it would tell him what his host was doing with it. _What's _this _all about_?

"Harry!" a voice said critically from behind him. "You're meant to keep _listening_ for me; I thought the whole reason you came up with this idea in the first place was to get some practice in case we're taken by surprise! You can't doze off, you know!"

Looking back at the source of the voice, he could only watch in astonishment as some kind of… _cloak_… fell to the ground in front of him, revealing a tall young man- the guy seemed as though he'd only turned seventeen a few months ago at most- with red hair and freckles, dressed in worn trousers and a slightly frayed maroon jumper that looked as though it had been knitted by hand, looking at him with a curious expression.

And he had been _totally _invisible before removing the cloak.

"Oh boy," Sam Beckett, quantum physicist and the unwilling agent of God, Fate, Time or Whatever in putting right what had once gone wrong in history, muttered to himself.

He'd barely even arrived in his new host, and already this was looking like it would be his strangest Leap yet.

* * *

As the resident psychiatrist for Project Quantum Leap, it had long been the duty of Doctor Verbeena Beeks to greet the new arrivals in the Waiting Room at the beginning of each Leap. As the psychiatrist, she was best able to find out how to gain the person's trust, where they were from, what they did for a living, and, more often than not, figure out from that why Sam had Leaped into them. True, it hadn't exactly been pleasant when Sam had leapt into the body of the Ku Klux Klan initiate (Admiral Calavicci had taken control of the conversation on that occasion, reasoning that making sure the only psychiatrist on the team wasn't fatally injured by a racist was more important than trying to get information out of him in a tactful manner), but otherwise things had gone fairly well since she took on her new 'job' trying to ease the new arrivals into their surroundings. 

As she walked into the room, however, and saw Sam's body standing up and scanning his surroundings with a panicked yet defensive posture, she got the impression that this was going to be one of the more 'difficult' ones.

As the door opened, the body spun around and stared at Verbeena, eyes wide in a combination of fear and anger.

"Who are you?" he asked, glaring angrily in her direction. "And where's Voldemort in all this?"

"Who?" Verbeena asked, raising her eyebrows in confusion. They'd had several odd reactions upon greeting new arrivals to the waiting room (Billie Jean nearly giving birth and Jesus Ortega thinking he was dead would always remain in her mind), but never, to Verbeena's recollection, had someone actually thought that the Leap was _caused_ by somebody; they generally just had no idea what the hell was going on.

"Don't even try it!" the new Leapee yelled, glaring defensively at Verbeena even as he tried to figure out some way out of the room; it was already clear that this guy knew how to handle himself in a fight, but, somehow, he didn't actually seem to want to fight her hand-to-hand….

"I don't know _what _he thinks dragging me here's going to achieve, but, quite frankly, all I want to know is how the _hell _you got past those 'wards' around Privet Drive!" the host continued, his eyes alone giving away the panic that was gradually dawning over him. "And who the hell are you, anyway? I thought the Order had information on all the Death Eaters, but I've never seen anything about _you_ before!"

"Death Eaters?" Verbeena said, staring at Sam's body in confusion. "But… what are you talking about?"

The Leapee seemed about to make some kind of biting retort to that comment, but then he seemed to realise something, and just looked at her for a few moments before he spoke again.

"You… _don't _know who Voldemort is?" he asked, looking at her in confusion.

"Uh… no," Verbeena replied, hoping that this was a good thing. Given the rather probing look on 'Sam's' face, it looked as though the new arrival was beginning to think about trusting her, but he still didn't look as though he wanted to say anything…

"Look… sorry, what's your name?" she asked, deciding she might as well get to the point.

"Harry Potter," the host replied, as he looked at Verbeena with a slight mixture of surprise and confusion. "Are you not a witch, or did something happen to me when… well, whatever happened to me… happened?"

"'Witch'?" Verbeena said, staring at 'Harry' in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

'Harry' opened his mouth as though he was going to reply, but then his eyes fell on one of the more reflective pieces of metal in the Imaging Chamber, and his jaw dropped.

"Oh my god…" he said, as he raised one hand to touch his face. "What _happened _to me… Some new kind of Polyjuice potion?"

"What?" Verbenna said, looking at Harry in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Looking back at her, 'Harry' raised a curious eyebrow.

"You don't know what Polyjuice potion is?" he asked her.

"Uh... no," Verbeena said, shaking her head. "Should I?"

Swallowing, 'Harry' looked at his hands for a few moments, as though wondering whether he should try something, and then seemed to come to a decision.

"Look, you'll never believewhat I'm about to tell you unless I do something to prove I'm not a raving lunatic, so I hope this works," he said to her, as though steeling himself to come to a decision. She vaguely heard him mutter something about a Ministry, but her attention was diverted by other things as the new arrival raised his hand, called out, "_Expelliarmus_!"...

And, to Verbeena's surprise, her clipboard flew out of her hands and landed in 'Harry's' hand, although she noticed that he seemed slightly paler than he'd been a few minutes ago.

Looking at the clipboard he now held, Harry smiled slightly to himself.

"Well… glad that worked," he said, as he looked up at Verbeena. "Wasn't sure I could pull that off… Guess I'm still not quite used to using wandless magic in an emergency yet…"

"Wandless… magic?" Verbeena said, staring at 'Harry' in ever-growing confusion. "Are you saying… you're a wizard?"

"Yeah… that's right," Harry said, smiling slightly as he looked back at the dark-skinned psychiatrist. "Just turned seventeen… but trust me; I had to learn some of my tricks_ fast_."

Verbeena's eyes widened.

A wizard? A genuine, flesh-and-blood, wand-using, magic-wielding _wizard_…?

If this guy was telling the truth (And the 'spell' he'd just done seemed to be proof that this was the case), this was going to be a _very _difficult leap for Doctor Beckett.

Reaching over, she tapped the communication button that had been installed in the Waiting Room since this all began; it had already proved helpful in cases such as Billie Jean nearly giving birth upon her arrival, and this was another case where she needed to talk to Al as soon as possible.

"Admiral?" she said. "You need to get here soon; our guest has a _very _interesting story to tell."

And, of course, they'd need to get Ziggy in to record the information; she strongly doubted that the information in Ziggy's databanks would extend to include the full details of the life of a _wizard_…


	2. Finding Out What Once Went Wrong

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd like it

Leaping Into Magic

"_Leaping around in Time, I've encountered some pretty strange things, and I've been in even stranger situations. I've faced the Devil while he's wearing my best friend's face; I've encountered an evil Leaper who wants to put wrong what I made right… Hell, I've even been _pregnant _once! But this… with people just appearing out of thin air (Without the use of the Imaging Chamber)…_

"_It's official; I'm in trouble_."

"Uh… yeah," Sam said, as he sheepishly staggered to his feet, trying to avoid showing the confusion that was rapidly threatening to consume him as he looked apologetically at the boy. "Sorry about that; I, um… got distracted."

"Hungry?" the boy said, shrugging casually as he picked up the cloak that had… well, made him _invisible_… and tossed it over to Sam, who caught it in a slight daze. "Yeah, I know; think I should go off after Hermione and find out what's taking her so long?"

"Yeah… sure thing," Sam said, waving his hand towards the nearby door. "You go ahead… I'll just… try and get my head together, OK?"

"Uh… OK, sure," the boy said, looking at Sam with a slightly confused expression on his face. "I'll be back soon, OK?"

"Yeah… right," Sam said dismissively, only half-paying attention to the boy's departure from the room as he scanned his surroundings. Maybe he'd find something useful in the room…

His eyes fell on a leather-bound book, and he smiled; if that wasn't a photo album, he'd be very surprised. At the very least, he might get a better idea what his host looked like. Leaning over, he picked up the album and opened it.

His eyes nearly fell out of his head, given how rapidly they shot open at the sight before him. The pictures themselves seemed to be of normal, everyday things; a wedding, a couple holding a baby, a group of three children (One of which seemed to be a younger version of the boy who'd just left the room)…

What completely threw Sam out of the water, and left him even _more _convinced that he may have started to hallucinate from having Leapt into other people's lives for so long, was that all the pictures were _moving_…

"Nifty trick," a voice commented from behind Sam. "I'll have to check with him to see if there's any way we could pull that trick off ourselves; possibilities are _endless_…"

"AL!" Sam cried out in relief, spinning around to look at the hologram of his friend. The Observer of Project Quantum Leap was currently wearing a pair of bright orange trousers and an equally vivid-coloured jacket, with a shirt in varying shades of blue on underneath it. The multi-coloured handlink (The one that had been joking nicknamed the 'Gummi-Bear' handlink back at the Project, Sam recalled) was in one hand, and Al was furiously tapping the handlink's buttons with his other hand as he looked at Sam.

"What's going on here?" Sam asked, tossing the album off to one side as he looked at his friend in confusion.

"Oh; so you've already experienced the magic side of things, huh?" Al asked, smiling slightly as he looked at his friend. "Yeah, it shocked Doctor Beeks as well; your host was able to yank her clipboard out of her hand with just a word, and he was standing at _least _three feet away."

"What the… _magic_?" Sam said, staring at Al in confusion; had his friend taken leave of his senses all of a sudden? "Al, there's no such _thing_ as magic!"

"And how do you explain the pictures, huh?" Al asked, indicating the album that Sam had picked up. "Holograms? In _1997_? C'mon, Sam; be realistic!"

"Look," Sam said, picking up the stick that he'd found in his sleeve and turning to face Al, "Do you seriously think that this is a _magic_-"

Then, as he waved one arm up in frustration, a shower of multi-coloured sparks burst from the 'stick' in his hand and he stopped speaking, staring at the… the _wand_… in shock.

"Oh boy…" he whispered.

"Whoa…" Al added, as he looked at the wand in Sam's hand. "_That _was unexpected."

He looked at Sam. "Another aura transfer thing? You know, like when you got the cop's repressed memory?"

"Probably… more like… when I was… y'know… _pregnant_," Sam said, still staring at his hand in confusion. "Some… physical trait… of the host… y'know…"

A part of him registered that he really should be making more of a big deal about this, but he just couldn't summon the mental energy to do so at the moment.

If he was suddenly able to cast _spells_…

He shook his head and turned back to look at Al; as fascinating as the possibilities were, he had other things to worry about right now.

"Look, do you have anything on who I am?" he asked, deciding he might as well attend to that more immediate problem; he might be able to work on his new abilities in his own time, but he had to know what his host's history was before he did anything else. "I mean, I'm guessing information on the life of a… well, a _wizard_ isn't exactly easy to access in public computers?"

"Nope, it wasn't," Al said, as he indicated the handlink. "Don't worry, we figured out a way around it; Beeks is quizzing your host as we speak, and Ziggy's monitoring the conversation to get the background info."

Sam nodded in agreement at the assessment. "Seems sensible," he confirmed, sitting down on the nearby bed as Al examined the handlink and tapped a couple of buttons. "So, what have we got on him?"

"Well," Al said, as he looked at the data flying across the screen of the handlink. "Your name's Harry Potter, you're seventeen years old- just last week, apparently-, and you attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wiz…" he whacked the handlink once before continuing, "…ardy; sounds like an interesting place. Anyway, you've lived with your aunt and uncle since one, when your parents were… aw, Sam, that's rough. They were killed when the kid was one."

"Killed?" Sam said, looking at Al in surprise. "By who?"

"Some dark wizard; calls himself 'Voldemort' apparently," Al explained, sighing as he looked up from the handlink at Sam; loss of a host's parents always depressed him greatly. "Hey, get this; turns out Harry's mom's love saved him from the curse and all he got was a scar, while Voldemort bought it when his own curse hit him."

"Ah," Sam said, in what he hoped was a neutral tone of voice; the sparks, the cloak and the moving pictures were all good evidence, but he still wasn't entirely prepared to be totally accepting of the existence of magic all of a sudden, especially a 'spell' that seemed to just have worked because of love. "And… he was sent to his relatives?"

Al studied the handlink for a few moments, and then growled. "Yeah, his mom's sister and her husband and son. Wasn't a happy change, though; the stupid meshuganahs beat the poor kid constantly, according to him; regarded him as a freak just because of who his parents were. They stuck him in a cupboard for ten years until he got a letter for the magic school he's been going to for the last six years; seem to have relaxed on him a bit since then, probably because they're worried he'll turn 'em into cockroaches if they rub him up the wrong way."

A hard gleam briefly appeared in Sam's eyes as he processed his friend's words- he hated abuse of any kind, but _racist _child abuse was another thing- but it was only there for a moment before he got his emotions under control once again and turned back to look at Al.

"So, what happened to him at the school?" Sam asked, deciding that they should continue to tackle the important matters.

"Well, according to this, his time at school hasn't exactly been a picnic," Al explained, as he studied the handlink with ever-growing shock. "First year he had to stop Voldemort's spirit getting the Philosopher's Stone; thing can create gold and make you… immoral? Why'd you want that; guy sounded pretty bad already?"

"Maybe he means immor_t_al?" Sam suggested. "I'm pretty sure I read something about that stone when I was studying my ancient languages course; it was said to be able to do that kind of thing."

"Oh yeah…" Al said, shaking his head critically at himself and looking back at Sam. "You're right; sorry 'bout that. Anyway, second year he stopped this massive snake that had woken up… rescued his long-lost godfather in third year… fourth… Oh boy."

"What?" Sam asked, looking at Al anxiously. "What 'Oh boy'?"

"Uh, fourth year…" Al said, swallowing, as he looked back at Sam. "This Voldemort guy came back to life."

"What?" Sam said, staring at Al incredulously. "Al, be realistic here-"

"I'm just saying what Harry's telling us!" Al protested, indicating the handlink as he spoke. "Somehow he got his hands on Harry's blood thanks to some 'Tournament' thing- don't quite have all the details here, Harry doesn't seem to want to talk about it that much- and he came back with a real body. Fifth year, whole year was spent with the magical government walking around with their heads up their asses trying to ignore the situation- kinda like the ones we deal with, really- until the guy broke into the place to get a prop…" Groaning in frustration, Al hit the handlink once again and continued. "…echy. Oh, a _prophecy_."

"You mean… these guys can see the future?" Sam said, staring at Al in surprise.

"Only a few of 'em, apparently; woman who made this one has a job teaching the subject, but she seems to have made only two or three _real _predictions in her life," Al explained, as he studied the handlink briefly before continuing. "This one seemed to say that Harry's the only guy who can stop Voldemort."

"What; the _only _person?" Sam said, staring at Al in shock. "They've probably got a whole _army _of wizards they could use, and a seventeen-year-old wizard is their best bet of stopping this guy?"

"Well, apparently, Harry's already made some progress; headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore- sounds like he was a grandfather figure to Harry- figured out why Voldemort was able to come back. Sounds like he…"

"He what?" Sam asked, looking at Al curiously as the hologram's voice died out, "What did he find out?"

"Uh… that Voldemort split his soul into seven and stuck six of the pieces somewhere else?" Al said, looking at Sam sceptically before glancing up. "Are you _sure _this data's coming through right, Gushie?" He paused for a moment as though listening. "It is?"

"Uh… right," Sam said, staring at Al incredulously. "And… uh… what happened then?"

"Well, they thought they'd found one of the things he hid the soul in, but it turned out to just be some random artefact," Al explained, as he sighed. "Then… aw, geez, this isn't good… the Potions teacher went rogue and killed the Headmaster."

Sam sighed and leaned forward, his head in his hands. "Great…" he groaned, as he looked up at his friend once more. "This guy hasn't had an easy life has he?"

"Nope, doesn't look that way," Al said, as he studied the handlink. "And… damn, this guy chucked the girl he loved because he wanted to protect her?"

The hologram sighed and stared up at the roof. "Boy, why is it these guys _always _try to do the noble thing?"

"_Anyway_," Sam said, sighing slightly at Al's slightly narrow-minded view as he looked back at the hologram. "Has Ziggy got any clue as to what I'm meant to be doing here?"

"Sorry, nothing yet," Al said, before shrugging apologetically. "We haven't got much to go on at the moment; we're having some trouble figuring out a way to get more information about a world that doesn't use conventional means of data storage, so we don't know what's coming up."

"Can you figure something out?" Sam asked, staring impatiently at his friend.

Al shrugged. "Maybe; we'll have to wait and see," he said, as he tapped another few buttons and the Imaging Chamber door opened. "I'll have Ziggy run a few projection scenarios; Beeks'll see if she can figure anything out with Harry. In the meantime…"

"Practice the magic?" Sam suggested, holding the wand up idly, trying not to show how confused he was by this whole thing.

"Yeah, maybe…" Al said, sighing as he stepped through the Door before it closed.

Sighing, Sam stared at the wand in his hand and glanced around the room, looking for something that he might be able to use to work on a few basic… spells.

* * *

"OK, so you're telling me that this 'Sam' guy has leapt into my life, everyone sees him as me, and he's there to fix something that's going to go wrong in my future and your past?" Harry said, looking at Doctor Beeks inquiringly as he sat on the bed in what was apparently called 'the Waiting Room'. "And until he fixes it, I'm here and he's there, and we can't do anything to sort the situation out?"

"That pretty much sums up the situation, yes," Beeks said, nodding in confirmation at the young wizard. She had to admire how accepting he was of the problem, but, given the kind of life he seemed to have had so far, she supposed that it was only natural he'd have a more open mind than some of her past visitors.

Harry groaned. "Great," he muttered, as he slumped back against the wall and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before looking back at the psychiatrist. "I don't suppose you've got any ideas of how to figure out what happened to me?"

Beeks could only shake her head. "Sorry, we don't," she said apologetically. "Ziggy's been trying to find some kind of reference to your school in any of her available databanks, but we've turned up nothing so far."

"Damnit…" Harry muttered, leaning forward and clasping his head in one hand. He knew that the odds of them turning up anything were unlikely- after all, the Ministry of Magic had never used computers in what he'd seen of them, so it was unlikely there'd be computers anywhere in the wizarding world- but he still wished they had a slightly better idea of what had gone wrong in his life that would necessitate someone else deciding he needed help.

If only there was someone who could _tell _them what had happened originally…

Then it hit him.

It was a long shot, of course- given the war with Voldemort, it was possible that she was now dead- but, if anyone would still be alive and willing to tell him what had happened in the past few years, it was her.

"Could… Ziggy… find telephone numbers belonging to people in the present?" he asked Beeks, crossing his fingers behind his back that he would get the answer he wanted.

"Yes, theoretically," Beeks replied, nodding in confirmation at the young man occupying the body of her employer. "Why; do you have an idea?"

"Possibly," Harry said, as he looked back at Beeks. "It's a long shot, but I need Ziggy to search for the number of Hermione Granger."

"Your friend from… Hogwash, right?" Beeks asked, already kicking herself for the mistake; she was pretty sure that _nobody _would call a school 'Hogwash'.

"It's Hog_warts_, but yeah, that's her," Harry said, chuckling slightly at Beeks' mistake. "She's the only one of my friends I can think of who might have a phone; if I can convince her that I'm… well, me… she might be able to tell me what happened that made this necessary."

Beeks looked at Harry with a slightly critical expression on her face.

"Are you sure about that?" she said, apprehension in her eyes. "After all, this project is meant to be top-secret; we can't just call our friends and tell them about it any time we want."

"Look at it this way; if we change history, she won't have been called, so how can she tell anyone about you?" Harry pointed out. "Besides, trust me; Hermione's kept more than her fair share of secrets in the past. If she _does _still remember the call in the new timeline, she won't tell anyone."

Beeks paused for a few seconds, and then sighed and nodded in agreement.

"Very well," she said, as she turned back to the door. "I'll be back in a moment; hopefully we'll have your friend's number by then."

Harry was glad to see that Beeks was as good as her word; barely a couple of minutes, by Harry's guess, had passed before Beeks was back in the Waiting Room, a small mobile phone in her hand.

"The number's programmed in; all you need to do is hit the button and you'll be calling her," Beeks said, as she passed the phone to the young wizard.

"Thanks," Harry said, taking the phone and tapping the call button with his thumb as he raised it to his ear, Beeks leaving the room to give him some privacy during this call.

He smiled briefly at the familiar-yet-strange sound of a dial tone- it had been _years _since he'd needed to use a telephone- and then the ringing ended, and he heard a voice at the other hand that was so familiar he nearly cried with relief, unimaginably grateful to find any sort of link to his normal life in this strange, bizarre situation…

"_Yes_?" the voice said, sounding slightly short; it almost reminded him of the way she'd been six years ago (For him, at least; he wasn't sure how _far _in the future he was now). "_Who is this_?"

"Hermione…" Harry said, unable to believe that his wild idea had worked, that he was even now speaking to his friend in the future, that at least _one _of them had survived, that Voldemort must have fallen if she felt safe enough to have a telephone number…

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, and then his old friend spoke again.

"_Hello_?" she asked. "_Are you still there? Who are you_?"

"Hermione… it's me," Harry said, uncertain what else to say, but knowing it had to be said. "It's Harry Potter."

There was a pause for a moment, and then she spoke.

"_Who the _fuck _is this_?" she roared down the line, causing Harry to back away from the phone in shock; he'd never heard Hermione swear in his life. "_What kind of sick game are you playing_?"

"No, Hermione, it's me," Harry said, trying to reassure her. "I know I probably sound… different… but it's really me; I'm really-"

"_Harry Potter is _DEAD!" Hermione screamed down the phone, sounding like she was almost prepared to burst into tears. "_He's dead… they both died…Ron and I couldn't even _look _at each other because they weren't there anymore! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ALL ABOUT, YOU SICK BASTARD_!"

Harry paled as Hermione's yelling continued.

"Dead?" he whispered down the phone.

"_You _know _he is, you sick_-" Hermione began, before Harry interrupted; this was a long shot, he knew, but he couldn't think of anything else right now.

"When we first met in the Hogwarts Express, Ron tried to demonstrate a spell to turn Scabbers yellow," he said.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, then she spoke again; still shaken, but, like always, she seemed prepared to put her emotions aside for a moment to satisfy her curiosity.

"_Wh… what did I write on that page I tore out about the basilisk_?"

Harry chuckled. "Easy enough; pipes."

"_What did I say about Victor Krum when we were researching ways of stopping dragons_?"

"Um… 'Oh no, he's back again, why can't he read on his stupid ship'?"

"_Sounds about right… What did I suggest you had right before the six of us went into the Department of Mysteries_?"

"Uh… a 'saving-people-thing'?" Harry asked, hoping he'd told her enough to convince her; he wasn't sure how much stuff he could remember accurately, given how apprehensive he was becoming about this whole mess.

There was a pause on the end of the line, and she spoke again.

"_How_?" she asked, in a voice so hoarse that she sounded like she was about to cry, a voice so sad and alone that it nearly tore at Harry's heart…

But he had other things to do.

Specifically, learn how to stop whatever made her feel that way.

"It's a long story, Hermione," he said at last, as he hoped she wouldn't ask for too much detail. "Basically, thanks to some project that went wrong, we have a chance to change the way things turned out in the past, but I need to know… what happens at Bill and Fleur's wedding?"

Hermione swallowed slightly, and then seemed to come to a decision.

"_You say you can change everything that happened after the wedding_?" she asked.

"Yeah… I think so, anyway," Harry said, nodding in agreement. "It's meant to be for the better, but something might go wrong."

Hermione laughed briefly, a harsh, frustrated laugh that sounded unlike anything he'd heard from her in the past.

"_Trust me; you couldn't make it worse than it was_," she said, ruefully. "_We lost _everything _that day… So, what do you want to know about first_?"

* * *

An hour or so later, Sam Beckett was still no further along in his attempts to figure out how he was meant to use these spells. No matter how hard he looked at them, the books only gave him a whole bunch of stuff about wand movement and pronunciation of the spell, and nothing about _how _he was meant to be able to do all this stuff in the first place. He'd been working on this spell to make things fly, but so far his success was limited; he thought he'd managed to make it float a few inches once, but it was hardly enough to get him anywhere…

Then the Imaging Chamber door opened and Al stepped through, a rueful expression on his face.

"Well?" Sam asked, looking eagerly at his friend. "What am I here to do?"

"Well, you know that girl I mentioned; the one Harry chucked for her own safety?" Al asked. As Sam nodded, Al continued. "Well, turns out she's why you're here. In 48 hours, she'll vanish from the wedding of her eldest brother to some French chick…"

"And?" Sam asked, already able to guess what would happen, and sure it would be nothing good.

"And…" Al sighed. "She's found again two weeks later, raped, multiple broken bones, and… dead."


	3. Beating the Abuser

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd like it

Leaping Into Magic

"Oh my God…" Sam said, staring at Al in shock as he sank back down onto the bed, almost unable to believe what Al had just told him. "But… but _who_…?"

"Nobody ever found out, Sam," Al said sadly as he studied the handlink. "According to our source, there were quite a few suspects- that Potions guy I mentioned killed the Headmaster, Voldemort himself, that sort of thing- but it didn't really fit their M.O. of attack; they're normally secretive in _when _they're doing it, but don't leave you any doubt that they were the ones who did it."

"Great…" Sam muttered, rolling his eyes and looking up at the ceiling before looking back at Al. "So, what happened to Harry after that?"

"Well, our source told us that he pretty much went into a self-destructive pattern after that," Al explained, tapping more buttons on the handlink as he continued to speak. "Nobody was really able to talk him down after they found her body; guy couldn't accept that she'd died after he'd given her up just to keep her safe, and turned into something that could be best compared to a kamikaze pilot."

"What, he went on suicide missions?" Sam asked.

"Nah, he just stopped caring much about anything else," Al explained, as he studied the handlink. "He took out those… horcrux… thingies that I mentioned earlier, but he kept on ending up fatally wounded as a result. He didn't even seem to give himself time to heal; just waited long enough for him to be in a position to walk without having to stop in pain every few minutes, and then was back on the field."

"And it killed him in the end, huh?" Sam inquired, looking patiently at Al. "Did he at leas take out this Voldemort guy he was after?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't exactly a perfect win," Al explained, sighing as he studied the handlink. "Our source wasn't very informative, but it sounds like Harry stabbed the guy in the heart while he hit Harry with some kinda curse at close range; both of 'em died at the same time."

"Oh boy…" Sam groaned, as he sat down on the bed and stared ahead at nothing in particular, before a thought occurred to him and he glanced over at Al once again. "What about that guy I met when I got here? And he mentioned some girl called 'Hermione'; are they-"

Al held up one hand to stop his friend before he could go any further. "They're both alive, Sam; Hermione was actually the person who gave us all this info."

Then he sighed again and studied the handlink. "But it's not exactly a happy life; the two of 'em had feelings for each other, but when Harry and the girl- Ginny Weasley; she's the sister of the guy you saw earlier; his name's Ron- bought it, neither of 'em could bear to be reminded of what they'd lost, and split up. Hermione hasn't contacted Ron's family since Harry's death, and she's not sure _he _has either."

"Ouch…" Sam muttered to himself, before looking back at Al. "So, what do I have to do to stop all that?"

Tapping a few buttons on the handlink, Al sighed as he glanced back at his friend. "Some of the more balanced odds we've seen, really; Ziggy says there's a fifty-two percent chance you're here to get Harry and Ginny back together, thus preventing her from being on her own when whatever happens… well, happens… and a forty-eight percent chance that you're just here to keep Ginny out of harm's way until whatever was after her decides to get lost."

Sam shook his head. "Second one isn't an option, Al; this guy needs something to fight for," he said, as he stood up and indicated the photo album he'd been looking at earlier. "I took a look through this while you were away; there's a bunch of photos of his parents at school and when he was a baby, and a few photos of his time at school, but we've got something like a ten-year period where he might as well have never existed. There's not a _single _photo of him at that time in his life, and based on what you've told me about his upbringing, I don't think we'll find one anywhere either."

"The point of this being…?" Al asked, waving his left hand, and the cigar in it, in a prompting gesture.

"Well, what good is it for him to save the world if he doesn't have someone to save it _for_?" Sam explained, indicating the folder. "I haven't read a _single _story where the fate of the world came to depend on one guy which didn't give the guy a _reason _to keep fighting beyond it just being the right thing to do. Based on what we've seen, his _family _aren't going to be his reason; they seem to have practically ignored him."

"And you think this Ginny's his real reason for fighting, huh?" Al asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Al, the guy practically committed _suicide_ when she died," Sam pointed out, looking critically at his holographic friend. "Do you want any more evidence that he cared for her a great deal?"

"Good point," Al said, nodding briefly as he looked at Sam. "Anyway-"

"BOY!" a voice thundered up from downstairs.

"Oh boy…" Al muttered, as he studied the handlink. "Sam, that's probably Vernon Dursley, 'your' uncle; he's just been visited by Ron's twin brothers to take you guys off to the house where the wedding'll be held."

"And… Ron and Hermione?" Sam asked, looking inquiringly at Al. "Where are they?"

Checking the handlink, Al shrugged. "That's all good, apparently; turns out these guys- and one of their older brothers, guy called 'Charlie' apparently- ran into Ron and Hermione while they were coming here, and had Charlie take 'em back." He chuckled slightly. "Turns out they once tricked Harry's cousin into eating some kinda toffee that made his tongue look like a snake…"

"Al, can we focus here?" Sam said, indicating the stuff scattered around the room. "What do I do; pack all this _then_ go down?"

"Nah, best you just go down; they might wonder how you knew," Al said, shrugging nonchalantly before he smiled up at his friend. "Besides, they've probably got some spell that'll get all this stuff sorted in a few minutes; can you _honestly _say you wouldn't wanna see that in action?"

"_Al_…" Sam groaned, as he opened the door and began to walk towards the stairs. He may have been willing to accept that his host was a living, breathing _wizard_ (No matter how unlikely he would once have believed that to be) but it would still take him some time to accept it completely. "Let's just get this done, OK?"

No sooner had Sam stepped off the stairs and turned towards the door than he found himself with a very angry-looking man, apparently only a few meals away from a heart attack and with a moustache that would have made a walrus look clean-shaven, pointing angrily at the open door at one end of the corridor.

"_What are **they **doing here_!" he roared, jamming a finger at the door in question. Turning to look at it, Sam saw two red-haired young men, apparently just on the verge of turning twenty and looking exactly identical to each other, who were just standing at the door with a small smile on their faces.

"These guys are Fred and George Weasley, Sam," Al put in from off to one side, where he was studying the handlink and tapping a few buttons. "Serious practical jokers, apparently; owe a lot to Harry for giving them their start-up after he won some wizard contest."

Trying not to pay too much attention to his friend, Sam turned to glare at Vernon, refusing to be intimidated by the man's greater bulk; after his little 'encounter' with the Devil during that Leap with Stephen King (He still wasn't clear on how he'd managed to escape that one) it took a lot more to intimidate him than a fat racist idiot yelling in his face.

"They're here to pick me up, _actually_," he informed his 'uncle'. "We've just got to get everything together, and we're- hey, what about Ron and Hermione?" he asked, turning to look suddenly at the twins; it wouldn't do to attract unwanted attention for 'forgetting' about his friends.

"Oh, we already ran into them while we were walking here; Charlie took 'em back via Floo," one of the twins said casually, smiling reassuringly at Harry. "Dad got his old Floo network contact to link this place up to the system once again, but since the two of them were nearer our entry point, Charlie thought it was more sensible he just take them back now."

"YOU WILL NOT-!" Vernon began to protest, but Sam simply pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at Vernon's face, prompting the man to shut up (A good thing too; Sam wasn't sure what he could have done if Vernon had forced him to use the wand).

"Sounds fair enough," Sam said, shrugging in an attempted nonchalant manner as he tried to figure out what the hell the 'Floo' was; he somehow doubted they were referring to the common bug…

"Uh… could you guys just get my stuff?" he asked, indicating the stairs as he turned to look at Vernon Dursley. "I've got something I'd like to attend to."

As the twins walked up the stairs, apparently content to leave 'Harry' to do whatever he was thinking of, Sam turned to glare at Vernon, a cold hatred in his eyes.

"Look," he said, glaring angrily at this fat idiot, "you don't like me, and I don't like you- I think we're both agreed on that much at least- but when you start insulting my _friends _for coming up with a way of getting me out of here _quicker_, you must be dumber than I thought; I would have _thought _you'd be _pleased _to allow me to get out of here faster."

"YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO ME LIKE-!" Vernon began.

"I'll _speak _to you however I want!" Sam retorted, glaring at Vernon. "And after the way you treated me, trust me, I'll enjoy _every _minute of it…"

"Sam, go easy now, you don't want to go too far…" Al said, raising one hand in a calming gesture.

"WE SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU TO ROT IN THAT CUPBOARD!" Vernon roared.

"_Cupboard_?" Sam and Al said in horror.

"OK, Sam, forget what I said; just _hit _this guy!" Al roared.

Sam was all too eager to oblige. Before Vernon could do anything else, Sam had lashed out with a quick punch that sent Vernon stumbling backwards, shortly before a loud scream came from somewhere behind Sam.

"It's just the aunt, Sam; don't mind her," Al explained, as he glanced over his friend's shoulder. "Just see if you can hit a bit of _sense _into this guy, and I'll let you if things look like turning ugly back here, OK?"

Giving Al a slight nod, Sam turned back to face Vernon and lashed out with a roundhouse kick that sent the larger man staggering back, clutching a cheek in agony as he stared incredulously at 'Harry'. However, the stare only lasted for a few moments before the Leaper lashed out once again with a quick 'stab' to the guy, sending the uncle down to his knees gasping for breath.

"Just count yourself lucky that I didn't want to waste magic on you," Sam said, looking down at Vernon as he turned around to look at the woman behind him. He was briefly surprised at how thin she was when compared to her husband, but stopped that train of thought before it could go any further; he did _not _want to go there…

"Goodbye," he said harshly, as the twins came down the stairs, carrying three large trunks and an empty owlcage.

"Good thing you already sent Hedwig along; might be a bit noisy otherwise," one of them said, smiling gratefully at Harry. "Don't worry; Ginny's been looking after her."

"Hedwig's Harry's pet owl, Sam," Al put in from off to one side. "Look, I'll check over a few possibilities; just try and stay inconspicuous, OK?" Tapping a few buttons on the handlink, the large white form of the Imaging Chamber Door opened up behind Al. As he stepped into it, Al looked briefly back at Sam. "And try and spend some time with Ginny. You can't miss her; she's the only red-haired girl in the place."

With that, the Door slid shut, and Sam was left alone, walking out of the house with the twins carrying the luggage with surprising ease given its size, leaving Harry's uncle and aunt to stare after him in shock, mixed with a more-than-slight degree of pain on the uncle's part.

Sam was just about to start walking down the street when both of the twins grabbed his arms, he suddenly had the strange feeling of being sucked down a straw…

* * *

And then he was standing in a garden, looking up at a crooked house with far more storeys than it should have, with the twins standing casually beside him and a mass of people setting something up in the back garden.

"Oh boy…" Sam swallowed, but he said it under his breath to avoid attracting attention.

_That _was an… interesting… way to travel, to say the least.

"So… uh… who's at this wedding?" he asked, looking at the twins. He knew he wouldn't recognise any of the names, of course, but it might help if he could get some names for Al to check up on their histories…

"Typical crowd, really; Mum and Dad wanted this kept quiet, especially after Bill's little encounter with Greyback," one of the twins explained, shrugging dismissively. "We've got our family, Fleur's parents and sister- she might be glad to see you again," he said teasingly, but Sam ignored it (Although he made a note to ask Al about it) and the other twin picked up the story.

"We've also got Lupin and Tonks coming along, and McGonagall's agreed to perform the ceremony," the twin explained, shrugging casually. "Hagrid's been asked along as well, but that's about it; we thought it'd be better if we avoided attracting too much attention to this place by having the likes of Shacklebolt and Moody around here."

"Ah," Sam said, nodding in mock understanding. "So… when's the ceremony taking place?"

"Tomorrow afternoon," the first twin said, glancing at his wrist briefly before looking back at Sam. "Give or take, just over a day; the wedding's at seven, and it's five now."

At that, he looked apologetically at Sam again. "Sorry we didn't get you earlier; McGonagall thought that you should just stay there for the full month."

"Oh… uh… that's OK," Sam said, shrugging nonchalantly as they walked up to the house and opened the door.

Inside it, he was instantly greeted by a very comfortable-looking kitchen; indeed, if it hadn't been for a few details, such as the pots that were washing themselves, it could almost have been the kitchen back in the farm where he grew up. The only person in there at present was a middle-aged woman working at the stove; her flaming red hair made it obvious that she could only be the mother of Ron and the twins, as well as any of the other Weasley siblings that Sam hadn't met yet. Sam was relieved to see that there weren't too many people around at the moment; he might be able to spend some time to himself until Al showed up and he had a better idea of who he was talking to.

"Harry, dear!" Mrs Weasley cried, turning to look at him with a wide smile on her face; evidently she cared a great deal for the young orphan. "How are you?"

"Uh… fine, thanks," Sam said, smiling slightly at her. "Just… glad to be back, you know."

"Well, we're all just glad you could make it," Mrs Weasley smiled, as she glanced over at her sons. "Ron and Hermione are already up in their rooms; you just get the trunks up, and then I'll be expecting _you _two," she added, glaring at Fred and George, "to help with the seating arrangements; we've got a _lot _of seats still to get sorted out there before we're ready for the wedding."

One of the twins groaned.

"Do we _have _to, Mum?" he asked. "I mean, we've been helping out for _ages_, and Harry and the others just got here-"

"They are _guests_, Fred!" Mrs Weasley said, glaring at her son. "Besides, I'm sure they have more than enough to deal with right now!"

"Yeah… yeah, that's… uh… right," Sam said, as he looked over at Mrs Weasley. "Actually, I'd like to spend a bit of time alone for a while; I've… well, I've got some stuff to think about."

He noted a slightly sceptical expression on the faces of the others, but, much to his relief, they seemed content to leave it alone for the moment; he was already starting to get the impression that Harry preferred to spend a lot of time on his own.

Of course, given all the stuff that seemed to have happened to him in his life, that was only to be expected.

As Sam walked up the stairs, the twins ahead of him as they carried the trunks, he could only hope that he'd manage to spend a bit more time practicing his 'magic' before he had to deal with whoever was here looking for Ginny…

As he rounded a corner, he collided with another figure coming in the opposite direction; it looked like she'd just come out of her own room, which explained why the twins hadn't hit her themselves.

"Oh, sor-" Sam began, then froze as his eyes took in the long red hair and deep brow eyes of the girl in front of him, looking at him in slight surprise with a hint of pain.

If this wasn't Ginny, he would be _very _surprised…

"Oh… Harry," she said, looking at him in a slightly dismissive manner. "Hi… Good to see you."

"Uh… yeah…" Sam said, trying to appear nonchalant, simultaneously wishing he could just knock her out and drag her off to some safer location until the time of her kidnapping had come and gone…

But he couldn't do that.

If nothing else, how would the _real _Harry explain it when he got back?

As Ginny began to walk down the stairs, Sam swallowed slightly and walked after the twins, hoping and praying that he'd manage to get the hang of enough magic to be effective in a fight before time ran out for the beautiful young witch…


	4. Magic Lessons and Holograms

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd like it

Leaping Into Magic

"Harry!" a voice called to Sam, accompanied by something violently shaking his shoulder. "Wake _up_, will you; you're going to miss breakfast if you sleep in any longer!"

"Uh…" Sam groaned, blinking his eyes open in a daze as he stared at what was in front of him. He'd spent a couple of hours after arriving in his room working on a few basic spells, grateful that he'd been given his own room so that he wouldn't have to face any awkward questions, but, after numerous attempts had only resulted in a few transfigured matches and some weak Shield Charms (Although he liked to think he was improving his Disarming Spell), he'd been called down for dinner, where the lack of Al and any information he might be able to provide had forced Sam to try and stay quiet and work his way around any awkward personal questions.

Fortunately, the topic of choice appeared to be the wedding the next evening, and since 'Harry' wasn't really involved in that, Sam wasn't expected to participate a great deal in the subsequent conversation either. He thought that he'd noticed Ginny looking in his direction a few times, but every time he looked back in her direction, she just turned away from him hastily, and he was left feeling embarrassed once again.

It was official; this _had _to be his most awkward Leap yet. True, he'd had romantic relationships with women who'd been involved with his host before he even got involved (Diane McBride in particular was one of those women he always seemed to remember, no matter how swiss-chessed his brain became) but at least in the past they'd always been a bit closer to his age back when he'd started Leaping.

Ginny… she was barely _sixteen_! OK, so he looked close to that age as well, but should he really do this? Couldn't it count as… cradle robbing, or something similar?

But… whenever he'd looked into her eyes, he'd seen something there. Something that seen something that nobody should ever have to see, and been forced to live with it ever since, unable to talk about it to anyone who might understand…

_Maybe that's part of the reason Harry cares about her so much_, Sam had thought to himself as dinner ended and he headed up to his room (Based on comments he'd heard at the dinner-table, he was using the room that had once belonged to Percy Weasley, one of the older brothers who'd pretty much ignored the family since this whole mess started). After all, his host certainly hadn't had it easy in life; abusive 'guardians', an evil wizard hounding him constantly, the recent loss of some of the people who'd been the closest thing he ever had to parents…

Shaking his head, Sam brought himself back to the present, and, glancing up, he saw Ron standing beside his bed, fully dressed and looking curiously at him, with Hermione standing beside him with a similar expression.

"Are you OK?" Ron asked, looking curiously at Sam. "You've _never _slept in this late before."

"Well… uh… I've had a lot on my mind," Sam said half-heartedly, knowing it sounded lame, but unable to come up with something more elaborate. "Actually, I think… I'd like to spend a bit of time on my own today, if that's OK?"

"On your own?" Hermione said, looking inquiringly at Sam. "Harry, you really shouldn't-"

"Look," Sam said, as he sat up in bed and looked at Hermione, "I'm glad you're concerned, but really; I'm fine. I just… need to spend some time by myself for a bit; I've got something I need to think about."

As Harry's two friends looked at him curiously, Sam smiled.

"It's nothing major; just a personal matter I've got to think about," he said, hoping they'd leave it at that. He was just grateful he'd managed to come up with something credible on such short notice; after all, given Harry's recent break-up with Ginny, wouldn't it only be natural for him to avoid her at the moment? "You can come and get me if you need me."

"Well…" Hermione said uncertainly, before Ron butted in.

"Look, 'Mione, just leave him if he wants to be left alone, OK?" Ron said, looking at his… friend? Girlfriend? Their relationship somehow reminded Sam of both… critically. "Everything's pretty much set for the wedding; if we need anyone else, I'm sure Harry'll be prepared to come along and help out."

He glanced back down at Harry with a critical expression. "Just remember; you're not back by five, you're in trouble."

"Yes, _Dad_," Sam said sarcastically as Ron and Hermione walked out of the room.

"Nice move, Sam," a voice said from behind him.

"AL!" Sam smiled, turning around to look at the hologram, currently standing in the middle of 'Harry's' trunk, dressed in a vivid purple jacket with dark blue lapels and trousers. "How's things at the Project?"

"About as well as you'd expect, really," Al said, shrugging as he walked out of the trunk to look at Sam. "Actually, that's part of the reason I'm here; Gushie and I came up with a way to help you master this magic trick. Gushie!" he said, calling upwards as though talking to someone that only he could see. "Send him in!"

The Imaging Chamber door opened once more…

And, to Sam's surprise, through it came another figure that he recognised instantly.

It was the face that he was seeing in the mirror right now.

"_Harry_?" he said, staring at the new arrival incredulously before looking over at Al. "How did you do that?"

Al shrugged. "Took a whole night of Gushie and me rewiring Ziggy to accept his brainwaves for the Imaging Chamber, and we had to use up the kind of power that you'd expect to use to light up St Louis for a fortnight just to get a few hours of it, but we got him in and visible."

"But… why?" Sam asked, looking in confusion between the two holograms. "Why go to all that effort?"

"Why else?" Harry- _Harry_- said, smiling slightly at Sam. "I'm the only person available who can teach you how to fight with magic."

"Trust me, Sam; this guy's good," Al put in, noting the slightly incredulous expression on his friend's face at the thought of a boy who was barely seventeen years old being a good teacher. "Apparently he set up a group that taught defensive spells when the 'Ministry of Magic' were trying to deal with that Voldemort sucker by pretending he didn't exist and that anyone who said otherwise was barking mad."

Sam rolled his eyes in frustration as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans; he really _hated _it when people tried to 'deal with a problem by ignoring it.

"Look, do we really need to practice magic?" Sam asked, looking at Al as he picked up the shirt he'd been wearing earlier last night from where it had fallen on the floor after he'd gone to bed. "I mean, I've already had some ideas as to how I might patch things up with Ginny- not that-" he began, looking over at Harry anxiously.

"Don't worry; I understand," Harry said, smiling reassuringly despite the faint hint of jealously in his eyes. "I mean, technically, you _are _me right now, so it's not like Ginny's cheating on me, is it? So long as you keep her safe for when I get back, I'll be fine with whatever happens."

Sam smiled gratefully at his host, before turning back to Al. "Anyway, back to the magic lessons?"

"It's just to make sure that we can do this if things go badly," Al explained, as he indicated Ziggy. "Ziggy calculates a sixty-four percent chance that, if Ginny's captured anyway, you'll still be able to save her if you move fast and know how to handle her captor; this is the only way you'll be able to fight off whoever captured her if it comes to that. Besides, we still don't know exactly _when _Ginny vanished from the wedding- according to Hermione, everyone only realised she wasn't home when she missed breakfast the morning after the wedding; probably assumed she'd already gone to bed- so we need to cover every angle until something crops up that we can use for definite."

"I see," Sam said, as he turned to look over at Harry as he buttoned the shirt up. A part of him still couldn't believe he was doing this- he was a _scientist_, for Pete's sake- but, with so much evidence against another explanation, Sam was just going to have to accept the situation until he Leaped out. "So, what kind of… _spells_… will we be practicing?"

"Well, given what we've heard about… _it_," Harry said, after a moment's pause (He evidently didn't want to think too much about what would happen if they failed), "it definitely sounds like you'd just have to deal with something human, so I'll be focusing on the essential basics; Stunning Spells, Impediment Jinxes, Disarming Spells, Shield Charms, that sort of thing."

"Ah," Sam said, in an uncertain tone of voice. "Uh… are you sure I've got the time to learn all of that in a few hours?"

Harry shrugged. "We'll have to find out, I guess," he said, as he turned to look out the window and indicated a nearby field. "The wood over there's as good a place as any to practice; you'd better hurry, though. The sooner we can get started on this, the happier I'll be."

"I'll hold to that," Sam said, as he grabbed 'his' wand and headed for the door. "I'll see you at the wood!"

* * *

About half an hour later, the two holograms stood beside Sam as, wand outstretched, he stared at a stone that had been positioned on a tree stump a couple of metres away from him, fingering the wand nervously.

"OK, the first thing you need to do is simple; stay calm and focused," Harry said, as he stood beside Sam, Al watching from a few feet away and constantly checking the handlink to ensure everything was going well as far as power was concerned. "Now, just aim the wand at the rock, and say, loudly and clearly, '_Expelliarmus_'! Got that?"

"Sure thing," Sam said, trying to focus on his goal as he swallowed, raised the wand, and yelled out, "_Expelliarmus_!"

The red light that burst from his wand was met with mixed reactions at the result; it _was _one of the most effective spells Sam had managed to date, but it was at least a foot off-target.

"What the…?" Al said, staring at the result in slight disappointment before looking back at Sam. "How did _that _happen? I've seen you shoot before, Sam; how could a wand be any different from a gun?"

"Well," Sam said, as he put the wand in a holster on his belt and turned to look at the official Project Observor, "for one thing, with a gun, I've become used to subconsciously adjusting my aim to compensate for bullet recoil. Plus, with a wand, there's all these other factors with a wand such as magic power when casting the spell and various other details that I need to take into account." He sighed and turned to look at Harry. "That wasn't that good, was it?"

Harry shook his head reassuringly. "Actually, no; given that you don't have _any _prior experience with magic, that was actually rather good," he said, reaching out in an attempt to give the Leaper a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but it just passed through Sam, leaving Harry staring at his hand in surprise for a moment before he shook his head and turned back to matters at hand. "Anyway, uh… look, maybe we ought to try something that might you a bit more _time _in a fight." Glancing around the forest, Harry nodded slightly in approval and pointed at an area just above Sam's head. "There's a bird in that tree; if you move fast, you should be able to hit it with the Impediment Jinx."

Glancing in the direction that Harry indicated, Sam saw the bird, and then didn't even stop to think; raising the wand, he yelled out "_Impedimentia_!"…

And smiled as the blast struck the bird and froze it right where it was standing. Glancing over at Harry, Sam was pleased to see that his host seemed to agree with his own, albeit amateur, assessment; it really was a good shot.

"Nice one," Harry said, giving Sam the thumbs-up. "Looks like you're getting the hang of the power needed to whip up a decent spell."

He sighed slightly as he glanced over at Al and himself. "Too bad we can't ask anyone to help you practice…"

Sam could only nod in agreement at that; if what Harry had told them was all true (And they had no reason not to believe it), then it would probably inspire too many awkward questions if he started asking for help in practicing spells that he'd been _teaching _a year ago…

"So, what's next?" Sam asked, as he glanced over at Harry.

"Well, if we're going to need to… well, _find _her… you'll need to move as fast as possible," Harry said, as he studied the clearing before his eyes fixed on a bush a few feet away. "That's as good a place as any to start with; you'll need a target if this is going to work."

"Start what?" Al put in, looking at Harry in confusion. "And what do you mean, 'if this is going to work'? What are you talking about?"

"Apparation," Harry explained, as he looked back at Sam. "It's basically a means of disappearing from one location and then reappearing somewhere else. The basics seem simple enough to get the hang of; I think it's mostly the actual _personality _of the person- how focused they can get on how to Apparate- that determines how effective they are at it."

"Ah," Sam said, nodding in understanding. "So… what do I do?"

"The three _D_s, as my instructors called them; we should probably focus on that," Harry said, as he stepped behind Sam to look at the bush. "The key points in apparition are Destination, Determination, and Deliberation; choose a destination, determine that you'll get there, and then deliberate your movement to the destination… or something like that…" The young wizard was evidently hesitant about this last detail, but Sam didn't have time to question it; if he didn't get the hang of this magic thing soon, he might have a problem…

He stared ahead of himself…

He focused on the bush in front of him, trying to picture this as though it were just a rather odd gun to which he was the bullet…

He 'lunged' forward with his magic…

And suddenly he found himself standing beside the branch. A sudden chill along his arm caused him to glance down and notice that the sleeve of his shirt was missing, along with his watch, but a quick glance back revealed that they were still where Sam had started.

"Harry…" Sam and Al said simultaneously, as they turned to look at the other hologram, who looked at the two of them sheepishly.

"What?" he said inquiringly. "Sam seems to be a very focused guy; I figured he'd easily manage to pull this off."

"And if you were _wrong_, I might have lost a _limb_?" Sam asked, glaring in frustration at Harry. "You couldn't have _mentioned_ that little detail _earlier_?"

"Well, I'm _sorry_, but when you learn that the woman you _love _is going to _die _and you can't actually _do _anything about it, FORGIVE ME IF I'M NOT EXACTLY THINKING THIS THROUGH!" Harry yelled angrily at Sam and Al. "I LEFT HER SO THAT SHE'D BE _SAFE_, DAMNIT! WHAT SICK FREAK WOULD _DO _SOMETHING LIKE THAT? I CAN'T LET HER DIE IF THERE'S _ANYTHING _THAT I CAN DO!"

As though just realising what he'd been saying, Harry clapped both hands over his mouth. For a moment, silence reigned, Sam and Al watching as Harry took a few deep, calming breaths, and then the young wizard turned back to look at the two men apologetically.

"Sorry," he said, slightly sheepishly. "I know you're trying to help; it's just…"

He sighed. "God, why can't they just leave Ginny _alone_? She's been through so much already…"

"And that's why you love her, isn't it?" Sam said, as he walked over to stand beside Harry; if the younger man hadn't been a hologram, he might have tried to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Because she's the only person you've ever met who can understand what you went through in your life."

As Harry looked at Sam inquiringly, Sam shook his head. "I haven't heard anything; I'm just guessing based on what I've seen of her. There's something in her eyes… as though she saw something terrible that nobody else could understand…"

"She did," Harry said, swallowing slightly as he looked at Sam. "Back in my second year, she was possessed by a fragment of Voldemort's spirit and used to unleash this monster on the school. Nobody died, and the monster was killed, but she was never quite the same afterwards…"

He sighed again and looked down at the floor. "I just wanted to protect her from anything like that happening again…"

Sam nodded. "I know…" he said, looking at Harry as the young wizard looked back at him. "But… when you get back here… do yourself a favour, OK? _Don't _let her go."

Harry chuckled slightly.

"Believe me, Sam," he said, as he looked back at the Nobel prize-winner, "after this, wild dragons couldn't drag me away from her."

For a couple of moments, the two figures just looked at each other, silently reaffirming the 'vow' they'd just made, until Al coughed behind them.

"Uh, guys?" the vividly-dressed admiral said, as the two men turned to look back at him. "Can we get back to business, please? We've only got about seven hours before Harry has to be back at the Burrow to prepare for the wedding, and I, for one,do _not_ want us to waste them; this Leap's hard enough as it is."

Chuckling sheepishly, Sam and Harry took up their original positions, Sam drew the wand, and the most unusual magic lesson in history began once more.


	5. Somewhere in the Night

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd appreciate whatever you have to say

Leaping Into Magic

A few hours later, Sam trudged back towards the Burrow, tired, but feeling at least slightly better about his chances in successfully completing his 'mission' this Leap. He wouldn't win any magic duelling contests, true, but so long as he just finished his opponent off as soon as possible, and nobody asked him to do anything important in the wedding, he thought he'd be fine.

If nothing else, Harry had certainly been complimentary of his abilities before the temporary link-up they'd created to allow him into the Imaging Chamber had run out of power. As Harry's holographic form had begun to flicker rapidly, the young wizard was forced to return to the Waiting Room, leaving Al to wish Sam well while he returned to the Project to run over projection scenarios to work out who had captured Ginny in the first place. Sam hoped they came up with something soon, but at the moment, he was only focused on getting ready for the wedding and coming up with a plan to make up for Harry's mistake with Ginny before anything happened. He trusted Al and the Quantum Leap staff, true, but he'd rather not have to _just _rely on their information and theories to solve a problem; Ziggy had been wrong too many times in the past for him to be comfortable leaving everything in 'her' hands…

Then Sam's train of thought was cut off as he saw the woman who he was here to save, arranging some flowers around the seats that would be used for the wedding in the fields behind the Burrow. According to Harry, the Weasleys had managed to hire some wizarding minister to perform the ceremony at their home, the better to avoid attracting attention by hiring a church for an official ceremony.

Swallowing nervously, Sam glanced down at his watch; it was still three whole hours until the wedding started. Even assuming he took a while to get ready, given his unfamiliarity with wizard costumes, Sam doubted that Harry would need anything too elaborate for the ceremony, so he should probably manage to get dressed in an hour at most.

Given the time he had available to him, he might as well try to do _something _to patch things up with Ginny now rather than later, right?

Swallowing slightly, Sam walked towards Ginny and, after making sure there was nobody else around so that he could be sure that he was talking to Ginny in private, he reached out and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.

"Wh-" Ginny began, as she turned to look behind her, only to stop when she saw who it was- or at least, who it _appeared _to be. "Oh… Harry," she said, in an offhand manner; evidently she was trying to convince herself that he didn't mean anything to her.

If it wasn't for the pain showing in her eyes, it might have managed to convince him.

"Hi," Sam, said, already feeling slightly sheepish. It was at times like these that he wished it had been _Al _who ended up leaping through time, rather than him; Al may have been over-the-top at times, but at least he had a better idea of how to talk to women. "Uh… everything going OK?"

"All right," Ginny said, shrugging in an overly nonchalant manner as she turned back to arrange the flowers. "Where have you been, anyway?"

"Oh… just… practicing, really," Sam said, hoping he didn't sound too stupid; after all, his host _had _been dating this woman- would he really be _this _awkward when talking to her?

Then again, maybe it would only be expected that Harry would be a bit uncomfortable around Ginny after the incident. From what he'd gathered during his meeting with Harry, the young wizard hadn't exactly made the easy decision in breaking up with her, so it would probably only be expected that he might find it a bit awkward as he tried to find a balance between being Ginny's friend and asking her to be his girlfriend once more …

And, looking at Ginny right now, still staying strong after everything that had happened to her (Based on what Harry had told him and Al while they practiced Sam's magic abilities), Sam could see why Harry had found it so hard to let her go in the first place.

"Oh yes… practicing," Ginny said, in an offhand tone of voice as she turned back to sorting out the flowers. "You need to keep up with that, I suppose… After all, you _do _have to be the hero…"

Deciding the obvious tactic was probably the best one, Sam groaned in frustration as he looked at Ginny, causing her to glance back in his direction.

"You think I _wanted _to do this?" he said, trying to remember how Harry had acted when Al had confronted the young wizard about his decision to leave Ginny; he couldn't quite remember how they'd got around to that topic, but he suspected they'd been discussing Harry's past. "You think I _wanted _to give you up? If it wasn't for that stupid prophecy I'd be telling the world to go and find somebody else to save it! If I had a choice I'd be perfectly _happy _to leave the world to get by on its own!"

Abruptly stopping his 'rant', Sam took a couple of deep breaths, as though to calm himself (As much as he sympathised with Harry, he still couldn't accurately portray how his host might feel about his life; it wasn't the kind of thing Sam had anything to compare with), and then reached over to clasp Ginny's shoulders. Noticing the uncertain expression on her face, however, he stopped himself and pulled his hands back to his sides; he didn't want to appear over-the-top.

"Look, Ginny…" he said, swallowing slightly as he looked at her. "I'm not saying you should just… automatically _forgive_ me. I'm just asking… well… I've been thinking… and, well… I was wondering… could you… maybe… give me another shot?"

_God, I sound _stupid… Sam thought to himself, but he shook the thought off; Harry hadn't exactly struck him as a man totally comfortable in discussing his feelings, so he'd probably find it difficult to say something like that.

Praying he wasn't over-stepping his boundaries, Sam reached over to lightly touch Ginny's cheek with one hand, raising her head so that she was looking directly at his eyes. As he gazed back at her, Sam could only pray that this would work; he was rapidly running out of time, and no new ideas were presenting themselves at the moment.

"Please," he said, trying to convey as much emotion as he could feel for a girl that he'd only met yesterday. "I… I miss you."

For a brief moment, as Ginny looked back at him, Sam honestly thought that he'd managed to get through to her, that she was going to take Harry back, that he could protect her from whoever was going to try and capture her…

Then she grabbed his wrist, pulled hishand off hercheek, and turned back to the flowers.

"_NO_, Potter!" she said harshly, as she continued to rearrange the flowers in front of her. "I gave you a chance after you ignored me for five _years_; don't think I'll be prepared to ignore the fact that you threw that chance in my face based on one _meaningless _apology!"

For a moment, Sam thought about trying again, but decided it wasn't worth the risk; if he kept on pushing the issue, she might just storm off in anger, and _then_ how would he manage to save her?

Then, glancing around, he saw a piano off to one side of the chairs- evidently wizard wedding still involved music- and smiled in relief.

_That _might be something he could use.

After all, in his experience, music could sometimes get a point across better than any words ever could.

Now, all he needed to do was get changed, find who was playing the piano, and somehow convince them to let 'Harry' have a shot on it.

After that…

Well, he'd see what happened when it happened.

* * *

AN: Sorry to anyone who wanted it, but I will _not _be describing the wedding itself; I just think that kind of thing is best left to J.K. herself, and I wouldn't really be sure what to do for that scene anyway. Still, hope you enjoy what I _did _do

* * *

A couple of hours later, dressed in bottle-green dress robes and trying not to look conspicuous, Sam stood off to one side of the grounds, and watched with a small smile on his face as the bride and groom- Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour, he recalled their names were- danced away in the middle of the clearing where the chairs had once been, other couples gathering around them as the music went on and became more fast-paced.

He had to admit, the wedding itself had certainly been an interesting event; he just wished Ginny hadn't glared at him every time he tried to catch her eye. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had this much trouble pairing his host up with somebody they cared about…

He almost wished he was back in that aeroplane trying to break Mach 3, back when he'd first started to Leap through time all those… months… ago (He was sometimes uncertain how far back he should regard his past Leaps as having taken place; how long it seemed to _him_, or how long ago it had been chronologically?). He may have been scared of heights, but at least that Leap had been _possible_; this one was proving to be almost _stupidly_ difficult.

How could he _save _Ginny when she seemed determined to hate him for leaving her?

Glancing over at the piano, he noticed that the Weasley brother who'd been roped into playing at the wedding- Charlie, he recalled the name was- was nearing the end of the current song and was looking at 'Harry' curiously. Making eye contact, Sam swallowed slightly and nodded in resolution.

If he didn't do this now, he'd only haveabout an hour to come up with a better plan, and after that, Ginny would have been captured and he'd need to rely on his 'magic' abilities.

No matter how good a teacher Harry had been, Sam would still prefer to keep his Leaps _fully _grounded in reality, thank you very much; the Leaps _themselves _were confusing enough for him…

Taking care to stick to the outskirts of the party to avoid attracting attention, Sam walked over to the piano, briefly exchanging nods with Charlie as the red-haired young man stood up and walked away, and then he was standing behind the piano, staring out at the crowd of guests, now looking curiously in his direction due to the lack of music.

"Uh… hi," he said, waving at them sheepishly. He knew that Harry hated attention, so he had to appear uncertain at this point, as though he didn't really _want _to be here, but felt at the same time that he _should _be.

Of course, that wasn't far from the truth; the only difference between Harry and Sam in this instance is that Sam had more experience at playing music than Harry did.

"I, uh… I know this isn't on the wedding plan," Sam said, looking around to see if there was anyone he didn't recognise from photographs- maybe the killer had sneaked in already- but there was nobody new, and he continued speaking. "But I… well, I wanted to do this."

Glancing over at Ginny, he made sure that she was looking at him, an expression of mixed longing and resentment on her face as she stared at him.

"For… for someone who means a lot to me," Sam finished, after a moment's pause.

As he reached over to pull the chair out, he heard the sound of the Imaging Chamber Door opening behind him, and smiled in relief; at least he had Al here now, in case something happened at the last minute.

"Sam, I don't know what you're doing, but it seems to be working," the hologram said, looking between the handlink in his hands and his friend at the piano with an excited grin. "Ziggy's calculatingsixty-three percent odds that Ginny isn't going to get captured anymore, along with athirty-six percentchance that she and Harry get back together soon!"

Sam could only smile and nod gratefully at Al for this information. Those odds weren't exactly great, he knew, but given what they must have been like before- after all, the situation _must _have been bad if he was here in the first place- he supposed any odds in the double-figure mark could only be a good thing. Swallowing once more, Sam reached out to the piano keyboard, flexed his fingers once, and began to play and sing, staring ahead of himself as the words flowed from his mouth and were conveyed to the crowd of wizards before him…

"_On the day I walked away,  
__All the blue rolled into gray.  
__Now in the dark, alone I lay.  
__Should have stopped,  
__But I could never ever stay._

As he continued to sing, Sam turned to look at Ginny, hoping that she understood what he was trying to say; that _she _was the person the song was meant to be talking about…

"_Somewhere in the night,  
__Inside my dreams you burn so bright.  
__And I'm with you there and everything's alright.  
__Somewhere in the night,  
__Before the darkness turns to light.  
__Let me love you there, somewhere in the night._

As he began the second verse, Sam turned his head away from Ginny and, once again facing straight ahead, lowered his eyes slightly so he was looking at the keyboard, trying to reflect the sadness 'he' was feeling as he sang these lines…

But he wasn't just pretending to feel regret about 'Harry's' decision, he realised.

Even if he didn't _know _what would happen to Ginny if he didn't get back together with her, Sam still would have regretted the choice Harry made to break up with Ginny.

It was as with all his hosts; when it came to the people his host cared for, he often found himself caring just as strongly for them as he fought to save their lives, whether he was saving them literally or figuratively…

"_Second chances, I won't get.  
__Wouldn't dare to hope and yet.  
__Everywhere I turn I see your silhouette  
__Been so long but I never will forget._

Looking up, Sam raised his voice, his words resounding loud and clear through the night as he continued to sing the song that had long been one of his favourite non-Elvis tracks, back in the days when he'd tried to come up with amusing diversions for the Quantum Leap staff…

"_Somewhere in the night,  
__Inside my dreams you burn so bright.  
__And I'm with you there and everything's alright.  
__Somewhere in the night,  
__Before the darkness turns to light.  
__Let me love you there, somewhere in the night._

As his voice sped up, Sam got to his feet, removing his left hand from the keyboard as he held it out in Ginny's direction while continuing to play with his right. He knew this might be overdoing it, but since Ginny was near the back of the group, it was unlikely that anyone would see he was indicating her. They'd probably think he was just trying to make the song dramatic or something…

"_Time after time, I find that I'm thinking about you.  
__Up on the hill I see you still but I just can't reach.  
__Who would answer your prayers?  
__Who would wait by the stairs?  
__Not Me.  
__Not Me._

As the final 'Me' left Sam's lips, he lowered his left hand and began to play with both once again. He remained standing, however, staring ahead at Ginny, slightly relieved to see the faint glimmer of tears in her eyes.

The song _was _reaching her…

Now he just had to hope it didn't push her away out of rage, instead of bring her back to him in relief.

"_Somewhere in the night,  
__Inside my dreams you burn so bright.  
__And I'm with you there and everything's alright.  
__Somewhere in the night,  
__Before the darkness turns to light.  
__Let me see your face.  
__Feel your warm embrace.  
__Let me love you…  
__Somewhere in the night…_"

As the final notes left the piano, Sam smiled in relief as the audience clapped, their enthusiasm unfeigned as they looked at him. Standing up, he just bowed once, and then hurried off the stage; if he talked to anyone before he got to Ginny, it would break the atmosphere that he'd tried to establish with the song. Waving aside eager 'friends'- Harry's friends, not his- asking how he'd done that, Sam rushed over to Ginny, grabbed her arm, and quickly dragged her into the Burrow- the kitchen door was, luckily, pretty close to where she'd been standing. Shutting the door behind them, Sam quickly slid the lock shut, hoping the people on the other side would just respect his privacy and give him and Ginny a couple of minutes, and then turned to look at the woman in question.

"What I want to know is…" Sam began, before swallowing nervously and hoping this didn't sound too corny, "Would you let that 'somewhere'… be here?"

As Ginny stared back at him, a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes, Sam hoped that she'd say yes (Thus allowing him to Leap out) _before _she tried to kiss him. Even if he was starting to care for this girl, a part of him couldn't get over the fact that she was several _years _younger than him in his real body, and he hated the idea of becoming a cradle robber…

"Harry…" she began, an uncertain tone in her voice as she stared at the face of the young man she loved. "That song was beautiful… but…"

"LOOK OUT!" Al's voice suddenly yelled out from behind him. Sam tried to react, but his ignorance of what the actual _problem _was didn't help matters; he had no clue what way to go to avoid the 'attack'. Fortunately, his instinct to just bend his legs seemed to pay off; something still hit the back of his head, but it seemed to be just a glancing blow. Sam still hit the ground, but he was at least _conscious_; all he needed was a minute or two, and he should be back on his feet…

"NO!" Al and Ginny yelled out simultaneously- at least, it was simultaneous to Sam; nobody else could hear Al, after all.

"Get away from her, you sonnuva…" Al growled, sounding like he'd have already punched the person he was addressing if he wasn't a hologram.

"_Get away from me, Malfoy_!" Ginny yelled, before there was a sound like flesh on flesh- probably a hand clapping over a mouth- a brief POP…

"Sam, she's gone!" Al's voice yelled...

But Sam couldn't quite hear it.

Indeed, every word Al spoke was already sounding far away…


	6. The Madness of Draco Malfoy

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd appreciate whatever you have to say

Leaping Into Magic

_NO!_ Sam screamed at himself, trying to force himself back to consciousness despite the near-blinding pain in his skull.

He couldn't allow himself to pass out right now.

If he did, Ginny would die; there was no way _anybody _else would be able to reach her in time before whoever had captured her had… finished with her…

"Sam, _focus_!" Al yelled at him, breaking through the pain and confusion even further. Blinking rapidly to try and clear his head, Sam staggered to his feet, grabbing a nearby table to steady himself as he swayed slightly on his feet.

"Wh… what happened?" he gasped, trying to organize his thoughts as he turned to glance at Al, who was staring anxiously at him. He vaguely heard the sound of someone battering at the door but decided his only choice right now was to ignore that; it was probably just some of the other guests wanting to talk to him or Ginny. Fortunately, nobody else had brought their wands to the ceremony due to the lack of anywhere in the wedding outfits to safely keep them, so he probably had a few minutes before anyone got in.

"Best guess; when you went into the Burrow, the kidnapper saw it happen and figured this was as good a time as any to capture Ginny," Al said, shrugging uncertainly as he looked at Sam. "Sorry, Sam; the girl disappeared an hour or so later than this in the original history. We just weren't expecting the guy to be that _close_ to you."

"Who… who was it?" Sam asked, looking back at the Project Observer as he blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to get his vision back to normal.

"Some guy called 'Malfoy', apparently; Gushie and Beeks're already quizzing Harry for information on him," Al explained, chuckling briefly despite the seriousness of the situation as he looked back at his friend. "Between you and me, I think the sucker's gay; no straight guy could be willing to spend _that _much time on his hair-"

"_AL_!" Sam yelled up at his friend angrily, trying to ignore the blinding pain in his head as he staggered to his feet. "Just find Ginny, will you? I'll try and keep these guys out of here until you can let me know where she is; I really _don't _want to have to deal with questions about what just happened before I can do something about it!"

* * *

"Yeah, good point; we've got enough of a situation here as it is…" Al sighed, as he tapped the handlink rapidly. He just hoped that it wouldn't take the two of them too long to rescue Ginny from wherever that guy had taken her…

If nothing else, he had a dinner date with Tina planned for tonight, and he'd really rather _not _miss it; after the fuss she'd created when he'd spent so much time with Teresa, their relationship was still more than a bit awkward.

Apparently, she found it hard to believe that Al could have spent _that _much time looking after a child, and was convinced that 'Teresa' was actually a buxom blonde he'd been staring at…

He knew that the missions Sam was given were important, of course, and he'd _never _skip one for something that just concerned him rather than anyone else; he just wished that the timing could be better on some occasions…

"Gushie!" the Project Observor yelled up at the ceiling of the Burrow, pushing thoughts of Tina to one side as he tapped a couple of buttons on the handlink. "Centre me on Ginny!"

A quick shift in perception, and Al was standing in the middle of a deserted graveyard, on the outskirts of a small town that he didn't recognise, as Ginny struggled desperately in the arms of the man who had grabbed her.

"Let me _go_, Malfoy!" she yelled, as the bleach-haired man who'd captured her chuckled behind her. His arms were clasped around her waist, one hand closed over Ginny's left breast, and his lips were constantly close to Ginny's head, puckered up as though he wanted to kiss her on the lips. Although his dirty, tattered robes gave the impression that he hadn't had a decent rest for ages, the deranged gleam in his eyes made it clear to Al that this guy was not going to calm down easily…

"Why should I, Miss Weasley?" Malfoy asked, chuckling slightly as he grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him. "Aren't I about to give you what you always wanted?"

"_What_?" Ginny and Al yelled simultaneously. Al thought he saw Malfoy look puzzled for a moment, cocking his head as though he thought he'd heard something, but if so, it was barely for any time at all; he just shook his head and glared back at Ginny.

"Come on, Weasley; if you have _any _respect for your bloodline, you _must _want me!" the young man said, his expression rapidly changing to one of lust as his eyes moved down to Ginny's breasts, more-than-slightly exposed due to the bridesmaid's dress she was wearing…

"HEY!" Ginny yelled, ramming her knee sharply upwards into Malfoy's groin.

"AARRGGHH!" Malfoy screamed, releasing his grip on his captive as he clutched his groin, glaring at Ginny angrily. "_That HURT, you SLUT_!"

"_Keep your eyes to yourself_!" Ginny yelled, as one hand flew to her side…

Only to be horrified when she didn't seem to find what she was looking for.

"Wands not part of the outfit for these things, huh?" Al asked, looking at Ginny briefly before sighing sadly and turning back to the handlink, tapping the buttons that would shift his perception back to his friend once more. "Well, if things were that easy, Sam wouldn't need to be here, I guess…"

As the words left his mouth, his vision shifted, and Al found himself standing back in the Weasleys' kitchen, still blissfully free of anyone but Sam. Al always hated it when people walked through him or something like that, even if he knew it wasn't deliberate; after all, they didn't _know_ he was there.

"Well?" Sam said, looking anxiously at Al. The Observer was relieved to note that Sam had 'his' wand out; even if Sam wasn't entirely clear on how to use it yet, it couldn't hurt to have the option to use it available.

"She's in a graveyard; on the outskirts of some place called 'Little Hangleton', apparently," Al sai,d as he studied the handlink. "Hey, get this; Gushie and Beeks've been questioning Harry about what's going on, and they've got some information about this 'Malfoy' sucker-"

"_Al_, can we focus on the problem at hand, please?" Sam said, indicating the door. "If I'm going to save her, I'll need to Apparate to get there in time, and I'd prefer to have a more fixed destination in mind than just 'some place'!"

"Oh, right, sorry," Al said, tapping the handlink and projecting a picture of the graveyard that he'd so recently been in (In reality, of course, he was just altering his own projection to include the graveyard image and allow Sam to see it, but he'd always felt that there was no point getting bogged down in the technical details). "Ginny's around here; last I saw, she was getting ready to fight with Malfoy, but the odds of her actually managing to stop him don't seem too good without her wand."

"Do we have any idea why he wanted to capture her?" Sam asked, looking anxiously between Al and the door. He generally preferred more background information on his 'opponents' when he was going into a fight during the Leaps, but he also couldn't forget that he was also dealing with a bunch of anxious relatives that he really couldn't give an explanation to at the moment …

Still, he could just Apparate out of here if they looked like getting in before Al had finished talking and get to a more private location until their conversation had finished. He was pretty sure he knew what to do, even if it was just a short hop, and he'd rather go into action knowing what he was dealing with rather than trying to figure it out as he went along and make a mistake.

Glancing at the handlink, Al smiled in relief as the information on Malfoy appeared, but the smile soon faded as he read more and more of the details before him about their new foe.

"Not a nice guy, huh?" Sam said, noticing his friend's anxious expression.

"You got that right; turns out the sucker's the son of one of this 'Voldemort's' followers, and thus he's an arrogant git who thinks he's better than most wizards just because his family's not got a single non-magical member in it," Al said, rolling his eyes in amazement at Malfoy's out-of-date attitude before continuing. "Anyway, seems he constantly annoyed Harry for six years in school, despite the fact that he's often humiliated or at least ends up having made a stupid mistake in doing what he did, until, last term, he was sent by Voldemort- real name's Tom Riddle, by the way- to…"

He looked up at Sam, confusion evident on his face. "…to kill the headmaster of Hogwarts?"

"I thought you said that the headmaster was killed by the… _Potions_ teacher?" Sam asked- he still couldn't believe he was discussing _magic_ like this- as Al studied the handlink for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, he was; turns out this guy was meant to do the job himself, but chickened out at the last minute as he lacked the 'killer instinct'," the Project Observer explained. As Al continued to study the information unfolding before him on the handlink's small screen, his eyes widened slightly in panic as he processed what Ziggy was telling him. "Ah damn…"

"What?" Sam said, looking at Al's nervous expression with growing apprehension. "What's wrong?"

"Well, according to Ziggy, there's an almost eighty-five percent chance that the trauma of being unable to do what he feels his father expected of him is causing Malfoy's mind to collapse," Al explained, as he looked back at Sam. "It's like… well, his desire to be what his father expected of him was pretty much the _foundations _of his life from the moment he was old enough to understand what Daddy was talking about…"

"And when he couldn't do what was expected of him, that foundation was lost and everything else is coming down with it, huh?" Sam said, groaning as he clasped his head in his right hand. "Great… now I'm dealing with a mad wizard…"

Then a thought occurred to him and he looked back at Al. "But where's Ginny fit into all this? If Malfoy's trying to make up for his past 'mistake', why did he go straight for her and just knock me out?"

"Well, you remember what I mentioned about this guy thinking he's 'better' than other wizards because his family's 'pure-blood'?" Al asked, as he looked back at Sam. Sam nodded, and Al continued. "Well, Ziggy's calculating a ninety-seven percent chance that Malfoy's trying to redeem himself by conceiving a 'pure' heir to the family name…"

"And, let me guess, Ginny's a 'pure-blood', so he thinks that if he has a kid with her he'll be 'making up for his mistake' as far as his father's concerned?" Sam asked, sighing in frustration as he clasped his head. "Great… a potentially homicidal rapist who thinks he's doing it all for 'the good of the species'. And I thought the Ku Klux Klan were bad enough…"

"Tell me about it; they may have gone after innocent people, but at least they drew _some _kind of line, even if it wasn't much of one," Al said, groaning as he glanced over at the door before turning back to Sam. "Anyway, you'd better get going; looks like the wedding guests are going to get through that door any minute now."

"Right," Sam said, nodding briefly at Al before he took a last look at the hologram of the graveyard, closed his eyes, and began to focus on his destination, hoping that his Apparation abilities were up to the task at hand…

* * *

_Dammit_! Ginny thought to herself, as she found nothing on her waist where she normally kept her wand. She should have remembered that she'd left it in her room for the wedding- after all, why have she need it?- but she'd been so desperate to find _some _way to fight back that she'd forgotten.

Well, there was nothing else for it; since she couldn't apparate away, and Malfoy would probably catch her fairly quickly if she tried to run, she'd just have to try and knock him out the muggle way. Swallowing resolutely, Ginny turned back to glare at Malfoy, who was staggering to his feet and staring at her with a demented expression of confusion.

"Why did you _do _that?" he asked; he could almost have been pitied, if it wasn't for the fact that he still had a lustful gleam in his eyes. "I only want to help wizardkind remain pure…"

"And I couldn't give a _shit _about your stupid notions of 'pureblood' wizards being 'better' than muggle-borns!" Ginny yelled angrily back at him. "God, what will it _take _to make you bunch of _prats _see that you're in the _MINORITY_? At least HALF of the Dark Tosser's followers are only there because they're afraid of him rather than out of any belief in your _warped _theories about blood purity!"

"LIAR!" Malfoy yelled back at her, as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at her. "_Crucio_!"

Ginny screamed in agony as the curse struck her, If only lasted a few moments, but even that was more than enough for her as she collapsed to the ground, gasping in pain as her limbs sought to return to normal.

"_ALL _of the Dark _Lord's _followers believe in his vision of perfection," Malfoy said, glaring down at Ginny as he twirled his wand in his left hand, grinning in anticipation as he stared down at the still-aching Ginny. "You need to accept that; sooner or later, you'll have no other choice."

Crouching down, he chuckled slightly as he began to slide one hand underneath her dress and up her leg…

"Step away from her," a voice suddenly said from off to the side. The voice was calm, almost neutral in its tone, but it was evident to Ginny that the speaker was more than slightly angry at what Malfoy was doing.

_Harry_! she thought in relief.

She didn't even care that she'd been angry at him a few hours ago, didn't care that she still wasn't sure what kind of relationship the two of them had now, and didn't even care about how he'd managed to find her so quickly…

All that mattered was that, when push came to shove, he was there for her when she needed him.

_Just like back in the Chamber_… a part of her remembered wistfully.

She may be about to have her sixteenth birthday, but, at heart, she was still at least partly the little girl who'd wanted a white knight to come charging in and save her from the monster…


	7. Sam Beckett Versus Draco Malfoy

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd appreciate whatever you have to say

Leaping Into Magic

As he stared at the sight before him, 'his' wand outstretched and ready to cast a spell, Sam could only glare at Malfoy as the half-wild racist stood up from where he had been crouched beside Ginny, turned to look at Sam…

And blinked in surprise.

"Potter?" he said, as though in confusion. "But… no, you're not… no scar… blue not green… but hair the same…"

He shook his head as though trying to clear it, but what he'd said was still enough to make Sam worried. It was hardly damning evidence, but it genuinely sounded as though Malfoy could see _him_…

"Uh… Sam?" Al put in from where he was standing beside the Leaper, looking anxiously at Malfoy as he consulted the handlink. "You _might _want to be careful when fighting this guy; given his currently poor and falling mental state, it won't be all the time, but Ziggy estimates a sixty-four percent chance that he'll be able to see… well, _you_… on some occasions."

Sam rolled his eyes.

_Great_, he thought to himself. As though it wasn't bad enough facing a racist madman whose mind seemed to be coming apart at the seams, the bastard _might_- at the very least-be able to seehim for who he really was…

Then he smiled, as a thought occurred to him.

Actually, since he still wasn't sure how much magical power he had available- after all, he was only _borrowing _the magic, he doubted he could access all of Harry's power right now- Malfoy's ability to see him could probably work to his advantage in this fight…

After all, anyone who could see him as _himself_…

"Al, see if you can tweak Ziggy to make yourself _more_ visible to him; you could be a useful distraction while I try and get closer to him, if nothing else," Sam said out of the corner of his mouth, as he continued to stare at Malfoy, trying to give the impression that he was only silent because he thought that Malfoy's earlier question wasn't worth answering. "I'll do what I can to take him down- maybe see if I can push him over the edge- but I'd feel more comfortable if I've got a plan that doesn't depend on… well, wands; I'm not sure I've got enough of Harry's… magic… to cast a decent spell right now."

"Right; I'll keep out of the way until this fight gets started- might as well make sure I've got the element of surprise," Al said, as he raised the handlink to tap a few buttons on it. He was just about to hit the last button when a thought occurred to him and he glanced back at Sam. "Uh… good luck."

"Thanks," Sam whispered, before Al tapped a couple more buttons and vanished, while Sam turned his attention back to Malfoy.

"I don't know _what _you're talking about, Malfoy," he began, staring directly at Malfoy as he spoke, hoping he might be able to intimidate his foe through sheer force of will, "but that isn't my concern right now."

"Then… what is?" the young dark wizard asked, indicating Ginny contemptuously (She seemed slightly shaken but otherwise fine, Sam noted), only a trace of uncertainty in Malfoy's voice; he was evidently trying to ignore the confusing sight before him and reassert his 'authority'. "This blood _traitor_? I don't know why you'd want her; she's an _idiot_! Honestly, she rejects what's good for all wizardkind when it's right in front of her-"

"Back up a minute here; are we talking about _you _here?" Sam said, a slight grin on his face. It might not be the greatest idea he'd ever had, but if his plan was going to have a better chance of working, he needed this guy to be pushed even _further _over the edge of sanity, and a comment of Al's had given the perfect idea as to how to achieve that. "Are you saying you want to get involved with a _woman_?"

"What?" Malfoy said, staring harshly at Sam. "What does _that _mean?"

"Nothing much," Sam said teasingly. "It's just, given the _ridiculous _amount of gel you seem to use each day, I always assumed you were… well, how do I put this… a sweeper of the chocolate chimney?"

Malfoy just looked at him in confusion; he was evidently unaware of phrases used by the non-magical population of the world.

"Gay," Sam said briefly by way of explanation, and smiled in amusement as Malfoy's expression changed to one of pure rage. The situation may have been serious, but it was rather funny, in a way, to see someone go through such a drastic change of attitude after hearing a single word.

"WHAT!" the would-be rapist roared at Sam. "YOU _DARE_ TO IMPLY THAT-"

"He's just saying what we've all been thinking, Malfoy!" Ginny yelled at her captor from where she lay on the ground; a part of Sam had to admire her for being that defiant even in her current position. "I mean, what with all that gel you use on your hair? You can't get mad at him for making a point when it's based on-"

"_Petrificus Totalus_!" Malfoy yelled, spinning around to fire a spell at her. For a brief moment Sam thought that he'd failed and Ginny was dead anyway, but then he saw that Ginny was still breathing even if she'd stopped talking, and realised that the spell must have merely rendered her immobile, given that her eyes and chest were the only things that seemed to be moving.

"Oh, _really _mature of you; stop someone talking because you don't like the point they're making…" Sam said, rolling his eyes as he glared at Malfoy, already taking note of how fast Malfoy had cast that spell. If his plan failed, information like that might help him strike back when the duel started. "You know, if you want to make people think you're straight, Ginny's got a point; you really should stop using so much gel. You may _think _it looks good, but it _does _create the wrong impression; a straight man should _not _spend so much time on his hair."

"I'm warning you, Potter…" Malfoy growled. If it hadn't been for the uncertainty evident in his foe's voice, Sam might have thought of him as a genuine threat; as it was, he was fairly relaxed. After all, Malfoy was most likely a competent duelist- after all, he _had _been raised to continue his father's 'dream' of killing anyone who disagreed with his beliefs- so fear of _losing_ couldn't be what was making him sound so nervous.

No, it had to be fear of the confusion over the current circumstances that was getting to Malfoy…

Confusion caused by the fact that he _seemed _to be looking at Harry Potter, his school nemesis, but that he also seemed to be seeing somebody else…

And, with that uncertainty present in Malfoy's mind, Sam was ready to strike the first blow against his foe.

"Now!" he yelled, directing the cry at Al as he aimed Harry's wand directly at Malfoy. "_Stupefy_!"

Malfoy ducked to one side, the spell striking the gravestone a few feet behind him, but Sam was unconcerned about that right now; he'd mainly been letting Al know that he was ready, rather than try and stop Malfoy.

_Besides_, he reflected to himself, as Malfoy yelled "_Sectumsempra_!" and he only just managed to roll to one side to dodge the magical burst from the wand, _I probably wouldn't have managed to hit Malfoy anyway; this guy's _used_ to using magic on a regular basis. When you get down to it, the only experience I have is a few hours of lessons, and, in any case, I probably only have _some_ of the power this guy's packing…_

But, right now, that would have to be enough.

_Well, that and my secret weapon_… Sam thought, as he crouched behind a nearby gravestone to wait for any sign of Al on the scene. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't stop himself from laughing slightly at the thought of how Malfoy would react to _that _little surprise when the time came…

* * *

_Yes_! Malfoy thought to himself, as he stood back up and glared malevolently at the current location of the fool who dared to challenge the Dark Lord (And him, of course; he would be _particularly _interested to know what Potter expected to achieve by confusing his vision).

Potter would have no chance against him in a duel; after all, _his_ blood was pure while Potter's had been diluted by his foolish father's marriage to a filthy mudblood. Besides, he hardly seemed very professional about the fight; if their positions had been reversed, and _Malfoy_ had cast the spell, Potter would already be dead.

No, this fight would be over soon enough; with Potter's apparently poor spellcasting abilities, and Malfoy's own natural supremacy, how could it not be?

And once he was gone…

"Hey, Twat-boy!" a voice suddenly yelled from off to one side, interrupting his potentially rather pleasant train of thought.

"_What_?" Malfoy roared, as he spun around in the direction of the voice, wand outstretched before him as he wordlessly cast a binding spell…

Only to see it miss (It _had _to have missed him; he was too bright to be a ghost) the man standing only a few feet away from him, dressed in some ridiculous orange-and-blue shirt with some kind of clunky multicoloured block in his hand. As the spell faded, the man tutted slightly as he stared at Malfoy, almost as though Malfoy was a petulant child.

"Good luck with _that_," the man said, apparently unconcerned by Malfoy despite Malfoy's evident superiority over this… _clown_. "You just found the one guy you _can't _intimidate with your fancy spellwork."

"LIAR!" Malfoy roared, as he raised his wand once more, determined to try another spell that would put this idiot in his place…

"_Impedimentia_!" a voice yelled from off to one side. Spinning around, Malfoy wordlessly raised a shield, smiling as he saw Potter standing behind a gravestone…

Then the shield faded and it was back to the confusing mixture of Potter and the 'other'- whoever, or _what_ever, that was.

"_Crucio_!" Malfoy yelled, launching the spell at his attacker, determined to ignore the bizarre sight- it was _not _real, it was some pathetic trick of Potter's- but to no avail; the half-blood somehow avoided the spell and it only struck the gravestone once more.

"With an aim like _that_, it's no _wonder _your daddy disowned you," the _clown _said scathingly, as he walked around to stand in front of Malfoy. "How does it feel, knowing that you _suck _at being what your parents wanted of you, you pathetic waste of _space_?"

"_Shut up, you filthy mudblood_!" Malfoy yelled at this idiot who thought he was _better _than Malfoy.

If nothing else, Malfoy had _far _superior dress sense than this idiot _ever _could.

"See, _there's _your problem; you just assume that, just because I haven't tried to attack you in any _obvious _manner, it's because I _can't_, so you're assuming that I'm no threat," the man said, staring coldly at Malfoy as he walked forward, talking all the while, until they were both eye-to-eye.

"But trust me, _berk_," the man said, glaring at Malfoy, "I don't need to _hit _you to be dangerous…"

"_Stupefy_!" a voice yelled from behind Malfoy. Spinning around once more, Malfoy cast another Shield Charm and smiled as the spell faded again, leaving Potter/_who_ever looking at him from behind another gravestone, wand outstretched.

"_Avada Kedavra_!" Malfoy yelled, only mildly disappointed when the spell missed Potter once more as the coward ducked; after all, he didn't want the battle to be over _too _quickly.

Right now, he wanted Potter to be _humiliated _before he died…

Then the man was in front of him once more, and Malfoy growled in frustration; he wanted to focus on _Potter _right now, not be forced to give this _idiot _the satisfaction of knowing that a superior form of life was bothering to register his very _existence_…

"_Get out of my face_!" he roared, clenching his fist- he knew punches were nowhere near as effective as magic, but he just wanted something simple to get the man out of his face right now- and launching a punch at the man's head…

Only to have it pass _through _the man as though he wasn't there; if the man hadn't been dressed in such vivid colours, Malfoy would have assumed he was a ghost, but as that wasn't an option, he didn't know _what _had just happened.

Tutting, the man looked criticisingly at Malfoy as the young would-be Death Eater stared between his hand and the man in shock, trying to find some way to process what had just happened.

"I've said it before, and I'll probably say it to you again; good luck with _that_," the main told Malfoy, looking at his confusion with a small smirk on his face. "You can't hurt me physically, you can't hurt me with _magic_… and if there's some spell that'll hurt 'ghosts'- assuming there _are _ghosts- trust me; _that _won't work either."

"_Who ARE you_!" Malfoy roared, trying to put aside his growing fear of the situation; he was superior, and would _not _show fear to this idiot…

"You want to know who I am?" the man said, glaring at Malfoy as he took a step forward. "I'm the guy who'll haunt you until you give up… I'm the guy who wants you to admit that you're a pathetic git with delusions of godhood… I'm the guy who, right now, is telling you to either give up and accept that you can't win, or you'll get your ass kicked."

Pulling a cigar out of his 'pocket', the man lit it, put it in his mouth, and then removed it to blow smoke into the air before glaring back at Malfoy.

"You wanna know who I am, buddy?" he said, as he leaned over until he was almost nose-to-nose with Malfoy. "I'm your Nemesis!"

"_Shut UP_!" Malfoy yelled, as he lunged forward with another wild punch as the man stepped back, determined to do some damage _this _time…

Only to have someone grab his wrist and twist his arm behind his back, simultaneously grabbing his wand out of his other hand and tossing it off to one side before grabbing the wrist and repeating the earlier action.

Malfoy knew who it was that _dared _to attack him so actively at once; nobody else could have arrived in such a short space of time.

"_Potter_!" he roared in rage, as he strained to get his hands free; even being in _contact _with a filthy half-blood like Potter made him want to be sick.

"The same," his rival's voice said from behind him, actually daring to sound _amused _at his superior's predicament. "You know, Malfoy, you _really _need to stay focused if you want to win a duel; you were so busy talking to yourself you never realised I was getting closer every time I cast a spell…"

"SHUT UP!" Malfoy roared, as he rammed his head back to strike Potter in the nose, only to meet nothing but air as he stumbled backwards; somehow, Potter had managed to get out of the way before Malfoy could hit him.

"Oh, come _on_," Potter said, now standing off to one side as Malfoy regained his footing and glared in his direction; annoyingly, Potter's appearance still appeared to change slightly if Malfoy looked at him for too long, but he at least was somewhere where Malfoy could easily hit him. "All those years preparing to be one of Lord _Moldiewart_'s followers, and you _never _learned how to fight hand-to-hand? What, you were just going to _always _use your wand?"

"Why would I need anything else?" Malfoy retorted, glaring at Potter/whoever; the half-blood's arrogance was unbelievable (He just wished Potter/whoever would look the same for five _seconds_; he still had no idea _how _the idiot was doing that). "What's the point of all that physical exertion when you can just use a wand and kill your opponent straight off?"

"Do you mean _that_ wand?" Potter/whoever asked, smirking slightly as he pointed at where Malfoy's wand lay near a gravestone, a few feet from their current location. Malfoy instantly lunged towards it, grinning in glee at Potter/whoever's idiocy in pointing out his weapon…

And then Potter/whoever's boot was in his face, as the idiot struck his nose with some kind of ridiculous spinning kick.

Admittedly, it _did _seem to have broken his nose, but Malfoy wouldn't give Potter/whoever the satisfaction of knowing that it hurt. Besides, his point was still valid; Potter/whoever could have _killed _him if he just used magic…

"Is that the _best _you've got?" he asked, glaring in Potter/whoever's direction. "_Pathetic_."

"You _would _say that, wouldn't you… _Water_blood," Potter/whoever retorted.

Malfoy blinked in confusion.

"Oh, like you pureblood _idiots _are the only people to come up with the insults?" Potter/whoever asked, glaring at Malfoy over his glasses. "You know, you go on and on about blood purity, but the way I see it, you're just making your genetics weaker by not accepting in any new DNA- hence 'Waterblood', what with water being thinner- and hence weaker- than blood _or _mud."

That was the last straw. No sooner had the sentence crossed his foe's lips than Malfoy roared in rage and charged at his opponent, determined to destroy this man who seemed determined to fly in the face of all that was decent in the world…

Only for the opponent, who until now had at least looked _mostly _like Potter, to suddenly shimmer and become a much older man, apparently in his forties, wearing Potter's clothes and glasses and in the same stance as Potter had assumed.

_What the_…? Malfoy thought, stopping in confusion at the sight before him…

Then the man's leg swung up to strike Malfoy in the side of the head. As he fell to the ground, consciousness already deciding to seek other pastures, the last thing he saw was his opponent, glaring contemptingly at him…

Then, all was black.


	8. What Once Was Wrong Has Been Made Right

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his various friends and enemies, as well as Sam, Al, and Ziggy, all belong to their respective owners; I'm just borrowing them

Feedback: Trust me; I'd appreciate whatever you have to say

Leaping Into Magic

As Malfoy finally collapsed to the ground, blood dripping from his nose and a large bruise forming on his cheek where Sam had kicked him, the quantum physicist smiled in relief as he glanced over at Al.

"'I'm your Nemesis'?" he said in a low voice- he didn't want to attract too many questions from Ginny if she heard him apparently talking to himself- looking teasingly at Al. "Isn't that just a _bit _melodramatic… not to mention more than slightly cliché?"

"This from the guy who called a powerful Dark Wizard who's killed hundreds of people 'Moldiewarts'?" Al retorted, grinning widely at his friend. "I mean, you have _six _degrees- one in languages, I might add- and that's the _best _insulting name you could come up with for the guy?"

"I wanted something that Malfoy would understand if I was going to provoke him; besides, I _was_ under a more than slight bit of stress, you know!" Sam retorted, his indignant attitude significantly less effective due to the wide grin on his face.

"Yeah, well, whatever," Al said, shrugging dismissively as he indicated Ginny's still-immobilised body. "Anyway, you'd best get her back up and get back to the Burrow; I get the _distinct _impression she's getting a bit tired having to lie around there right now. Gushie asked Harry about that spell Malfoy used on her," he added, indicating the handlink, "and apparently all you need to do is say 'Finite Incantatem' and she's back up and at them."

"Right," Sam said, nodding in agreement as he pulled Harry's wand out of his pocket and walked over to the form of the young girl he'd come here to save. Grateful that she'd been looking away and that he'd been speaking at a low volume- at least he wouldn't have to explain who he'd been talking to earlier- Sam took a brief glance to make sure she didn't seem injured, raised the wand, pointed it at her, and said "_Finite Incanteum_!"

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Ginny was sitting up with her arms wrapped tightly around Sam's shoulders, sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder as she spoke.

"I'm s-s-_sorry_!" she said, sounding like she'd just been told someone she loved had died. "You could have _died_… Malfoy could have _killed _you… It's my fault… it's all my fault… if you'd just stayed away…"

"What, then _you'd_ be dead?" Sam said, reaching up to grab Ginny's shoulders and push her slightly away from him so he could look her in the eyes. He wasn't sure how she'd take this, given that she _still _appeared to be crying slightly…

But she had to know- she _deserved _to know- how Harry felt about her.

How he _had _to feel about her, given how he'd reacted to her death in the original timeline…

Just because Sam _wasn't _Harry in any way other than appearance didn't mean he didn't understand what his host must have gone through when this woman had been taken from his life forever. Even after all this time, the loss of his father and brother still hurt Sam considerably, and he'd had the 'comfort' of knowing they'd just died by chance rather than fearing that their deaths may have occurred because somebody was trying to hurt _him_.

As far as how strongly Harry's feelings about Ginny's death must have been…

Even the little he'd heard from Al had been enough for him to pity his host's future unless things were changed for the better. Losing this beautiful, courageous young woman had driven Harry Potter, a young man who had already endured so much, over the edge into a state of almost suicidal madness. If Al's information was accurate, the man had pretty much _refused _to keep going after he'd completed his 'mission' to destroy the horcruxes… apparently all because Ginny Weasley would never be there for him once the fight was over.

If that didn't mean he'd been in love with her, Sam didn't know what would show that.

"Look, Ginny," Sam said, turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand as he looked at her, still red-eyed from her earlier crying fit, "whatever you think, I don't _blame _you for getting me into this situation; quite frankly, a world where I _didn't _manage to find you here isn't worth thinking about…"

He sighed. "If I blame _anyone_ for what that… _jerk_… did," he said, indicating where Malfoy was lying sprawled on the ground, already wishing he'd hit the guy a bit harder than he actually did, "I'm blaming myself."

"No, Har-" Ginny began, before Sam placed a hand over her mouth.

"No, really, I do," he said, staring at her as he spoke. "If I'd been a bit more sensible back then… a bit _less _stupid about how I treated you after the funeral… maybe you wouldn't have been so busy being angry at me- not that I didn't deserve it, of course- for doing something so _stupid_ as letting you go."

"Nice line," Al said, nodding in approval as Ginny looked inquiringly at Sam.

"You… you mean that?" she asked, staring at him in surprise. "Even after I-"

"What, got taken by surprise by a complete idiot after already trying to hold him back as much as you could given what you had available?" Sam asked, indicating the unconscious Malfoy with a small grin on his face. "Ginny, if I blamed you for _that_, I'd be an even _bigger _idiot! Quite frankly, given that he took you by surprise _and _had a wand, I'm mainly impressed that you were still willing to stand up to him, given that you didn't know what he'd do."

Ginny just shrugged slightly as she glared over at the unconscious Malfoy.

"Trust me, Harry; I had a basic idea of what he wanted, and that's more than I wanted _or _needed," she said, eyes narrowed as she glared in the young madman's direction before looking back at Sam. "But… you mean that? About not blaming me for it, I mean…"

Sam just smiled back at her, as he tenderly brushed an errant strand of hair out of her face.

"Every word," he said simply. "I'm just grateful that you held him off until I could get here."

He leaned over to kiss her briefly on the forehead, and then he stood up, took Ginny by the hand, and hauled her to her feet.

"Anyway, we'd better be getting back," he said, sparing a brief glare over in Malfoy's direction as he spoke. "We'll have to remember to send someone here for that guy when we get back to the Burrow."

"Tell me about it," Ginny muttered, shooting a brief glare at Malfoy before Sam clasped her tightly in his arms, closed his eyes as she wrapped her own arms around his waist, focused on the Burrow…

And the two of them were standing in the middle of the kitchen, attracting several stares as the various Weasleys turned to see (As they thought) Harry and Ginny in a passionate embrace.

"Before anyone says _anything_," Ginny said, turning to glare particularly hard at the twins who'd picked Sam up yesterday, before turning her attention to her very critical-looking parents, "Harry and I were _not _apparating off to have a private snog; we actually just had a close call with Malfoy."

"_Malfoy_?" Hermione said, looking at Ginny in shock as she stepped away from Sam; the youngest Weasley's brothers and parents both seemed too shocked to think of something else to say right now.

"Yeah; he just hit me in the head, grabbed Ginny, and then apparated over to this graveyard before I could do anything to stop him," Sam put in, drawing attention away from Ginny for the moment; he got the impression this was _not _going to be something she wanted to talk to her family about. "I managed to stay awake, took a chance that Malfoy'd go somewhere he knew pretty well, and checked out some of the more likely places-"

"Wait a minute; he knows a _graveyard_ pretty well?" Charlie put in, looking at Harry in confusion. "What's that all about?"

"And what made you so sure he'd go there?" Ron put in, looking in confusion at Sam. "Wouldn't he go somewhere a bit more comfortable than a _graveyard_?"

"Well, to answer the first one, that's… a long story," Sam said, passing it off with a wave of his hand; he'd rather _not _go into too much detail right now, especially since Harry might come back at any minute. "And for the second… well, not many people know there's a connection between him and this graveyard, so I figured he'd probably want to go somewhere where he wasn't likely to be found."

"And you just went _there_?" Hermione said, looking critically at Sam; this girl could really make you feel uncomfortable with the intensity of her stare, Sam reflected.

"Well… I checked a couple of locations first," Sam said, grateful that he'd taken a bit of time to leave; so long as nobody had actually looked through the window during his discussion with Al before he'd apparated away, his story _should _be OK…

"Look, does it really matter _how _he did it?" Ginny said, looking at her parents critically. "As far as I'm concerned, all that matters is that, if Harry _hadn't _managed to find me, I probably wouldn't be here right now, OK?"

"_That's _true enough…" a voice said from over Sam's shoulder; Al had evidently shown up at last.

"Uh… could you excuse me a minute?" Sam said, looking anxiously at everyone else. "I've… got to do something."

For a moment he thought that someone was going to protest, but when he started to head towards the door that concealed the Weasley's toilet, they appeared more prepared to just let him go.

As soon as the door was locked, Sam turned to look at Al, who had walked through the wall to join him.

"Well?" he asked, looking anxiously at the hologram. "What happens now?"

"Well," Al said, studying the handlink with a broad grin on his face, "you'll be pleased to know that not _only _does Harry find the horcruxes, but he actually finds them far _faster _than he did in the original history; he takes a _lot _more care when he's on the missions than he did the first time around."

"And Voldemort?"

"Went down like a sack of potatoes in the final confrontation after a few minutes," Al smiled, chuckling slightly as he studied the handlink. "Hey, get this; turns out Harry started working on his _hand-to-hand_ skills after he gets back, and it helps him take Voldemort by surprise in the showdown." He glanced back at Sam with a smile on his face. "Guess you made more of an impression than you thought; he commented once that he was inspired to train by a friend who helped him out of a tight spot."

A brief sob outside the door caused Sam and Al to pause for a moment, but Al just stuck his head through the door and then glanced back at Sam. "It's cool; just Mrs Weasley hugging Ginny- think it finally fully hit her what could have happened to Ginny if you hadn't shown up in time."

Sam nodded in understanding. Back in the Vietnam War, when his family received the telegram informing them of the death of Tom Beckett, it had taken him some time to fully process the news that his brother was gone; it had only fully sunk in when he'd gone into his brother's room after getting the news, as he realised that Tom would never be returning to it. It was hardly surprising that other people would feel the same way in this kind of situation.

And speaking of the Weasleys…

"What about the others?" Sam asked anxiously. "Ron and Hermione? Are they both OK now?"

"Yeah, they're fine," Al grinned back. "Ron and Hermione are married and expecting their first children- twins, apparently- and Harry and Ginny have a son and Ginny's pregnant with their daughter. Ron and Hermione _still _haven't decided on names for the kids, but Harry and Ginny are already resolved to call their daughter Lily Molly, after her grandmothers, and the son…"

He smiled slightly.

"What?" Sam said, looking in confusion at Al. "What is it?"

Looking up, Al smiled.

"They called their son Sirius _Samuel_," he said, a broad grin on his face. "Harry named him after _you_, Sam."

Sam blinked in surprise.

He hadn't been expecting _that_. He'd sometimes wondered just how much the 'swiss cheese' effect that always left _his _memory rather spotty when he Leaped would affect his hosts- he typical just assumed that they forgot about the Leap and went on with their lives.

To know that Harry had remembered enough to name his _son _after him…

"Wait a minute…" Sam said, turning to look at Al in confusion, "how do we know all this? I mean, I can understand knowing about the kids- birth and marriage certificates would probably be in computer records- but all this stuff about Voldemort…"

"Well, we didn't have to go far," Al said, smiling broadly at his friend. "After all, not only does Harrypretty much keep us going financially these days, but we _do _have Hermione on the staff."

Sam's jaw nearly dropped.

"What…?" he began.

"Oh yeah; turns out, when Harry finally beat Voldemort and had some extra spare time on his hands, he tracked us down and monitored our progress, chipping in with financial donations whenever we were strapped for cash- apparently his parents left him a stupidly large amount of money and he figured we'd make good use of it," Al said, smiling as he looked at Sam. "Anonymous, mainly; we only learned it was _him _a couple of days ago when he was sure the time was right and he wouldn't impact us getting into this position in the first place."

"Whoa…" Sam said, as he turned to stare at the reflection in the mirror before he fully processed the other detail Al had told him. "Wait; _Hermione's_ on the Project now?"

"Yep," Al said, smiling broadly at his friend. "She was actually involved in the construction of Ziggy; the two of you came up with some _pretty _good ideas about how to get our brain patterns to sync up so that Ziggy could be the brainbox she is today, to say nothing of the upgrades she's made to the system since then."

"Upgrades?" Sam said, looking at Al in surprise.

"Yeah, mostly to do with the speed at which we can track you down after you've Leaped; there've been a few other upgrades involving information access and general comfort in the project, but generally these days she's good for keeping our spirits up," Al explained, a grin on his face as he spoke. "If nothing else, some of her arguments with Ron can be _very _amusing…"

"Right…" Sam said, only partly registering what Al was saying as he stared at the mirror.

He had barely spent two _days_ living Harry's life to save Ginny… and Harry had provided _them _with financial assistance? The sheer amount of money the Project needed just to operate on a daily basis was…

Raising one hand as he stared at the mirror, Sam touched the glass gently, wishing more than ever before that he could, at some point, actually _meet _his hosts, rather than just see them in the mirror…

Because, right now, he wanted nothing more than to shake Harry's hand and thank him for what he had done for the Project- if the man hadn't had _something _to do with Hermione applying for a job at the Project, Sam would be _very _surprised.

"Anyway, you'd better get back out there," Al said, jerking his thumb towards the bathroom door. "Ziggy estimates there's a ninety-eight percent chance that all you need to do is make it clear to Ginny that she and Harry are going to start dating once again, and you're set."

Nodding slightly, Sam opened the door, and instantly found himself wrapped in Mrs Weasley's arms as she gripped him so tightly he was almost worried she'd suffocate him.

"Oh, _Harry_!" she said, sounding like she was almost sobbing herself. "How could you _do _that? You could have been _killed_! Why didn't you_ wait _for _help_? We were all so _worried _about you…"

"I know…" Sam said, patting her reassuringly on the back as he spoke. "And I'm sorry for that… believe me."

Then he sighed slightly as he looked over at Ginny. "But quite frankly… given what _might _have happened, the option of doing nothing…"

He shrugged. "Well, it wasn't an option."

As Ginny looked up at him, the faintest trace of tears in her eyes at what 'Harry' had just said to her, Sam smiled back…

And then he Leaped.


End file.
